Malaysia returns trash, tells wealthy countries to ‘dream on’

Malaysia’s environmental minister warned Monday that western countries can “dream on” if they think Malaysia will continue accepting large quantities of plastic and other waste from nations seeking to export garbage.

ABC News reported that Yeo Bee Yin announced at a press conference that his country had returned 150 containers of plastic waste in the last quarter of 2019, and expected to return another 110 containers in the coming months.

The majority of the containers were returned to France, while other nations including the U.K. and the United States were among the recipients of the returned trash, according to ABC.

“If people want to see us as the rubbish dump of the world, you dream on,” the minister said Monday during a tour of an inspection site with journalists.

“Our position is very firm. We just want to send back (the waste) and we just want to give a message that Malaysia is not the dumping site of the world,” she continued.

The costs associated with returning the waste was borne by shipping companies responsible for transporting the garbage as well as the containers’ original home countries, according to Yeo.

More than 200 illegal plastic recycling factories have been closed by the Malaysian government in recent months, Yeo added, as the country seeks to crack down on waste importation.

If talks with the U.S. are successful, the U.S. could see another 60 containers of plastic waste returned this year. Yeo previously urged the U.S. and other western nations to cease exporting trash to developing nations last year after a Greenpeace investigation found that illegal trash recycling was harming the country’s environment due to companies employing dangerous practices such as open-air burning to respond to the influx.

“We urge the developed countries to review their management of plastic waste and stop shipping garbage to developing countries,” she said last year.