Malaysia tells Canada to take back trash

a second Asian nation is now demanding Canada take back its trash Malaysia now says shipping containers full of low-grade plastics from this country too contaminated to be recycled are sitting in its largest shipping port officials are now joining the government of the Philippines in refusing to process the Canadian waste now our David Kamen has more on the story he's reporting from the ground near Kuala Lumpur and he tells us today Malaysia wants Canada to change its ways yet again an Asian nation is demanding Canada take back its plastic waste Malaysian officials here at the largest port are looking inside these shipping containers this one from Canada you can see inside you know grocery bags from big Canadian brands ones we know as well as packaging from many retail and grocery products and this comes on the heels of what's been happening in the Philippines Malaysia is just the latest to say Western world and Canada in particular in this case we do not want your low value plastic because what happens is when it arrives here it is inevitably burned buried or dumped somewhere illegally sometimes processed by illegal recycling factories it's brought in the higher value stuff is recycled though there can be considerable environmental and labor considerations considerable degradation that happens as a result of that and just take a look here at the amount of interest that's happening in Malaysia as they open up these containers which they now say will be sent back to their countries of origin so that one going back to Canada remember what's happened in the Philippines on Thursday of this week 69 shipping containers will be put on a ship sent back to Canada disposed in Vancouver because of what Canada has increasingly been doing in its recycling industry taking that stuff from your blue box and sending it abroad to be recycled but the lower value plastic this is what happens Asian nations don't want it anymore they say it is polluting and the Malaysian Environment Minister there has told us very clearly stop dumping this and if you do we're gonna send it back that is David Kamen from Port Klang which is near Kuala Lumpur now we've reached out to Canada's Environment Minister Catherine McKenna for comment on this latest situation haven't heard anything back but of course we'll keep you updated on it as David mentioned Ottawa in the process now of removing dozens of shipping containers of trash from the Philippines and here are brand new images into CBC news of the process their workers fumigating the containers and preparing them to ship them back on Thursday of this week they'll be sent to Vancouver's port where they will be processed and disposed of and we'll continue to bring you more on that story

Channel: CBC News

Views: 1,033,414

Rating: 4.9092531 out of 5

Keywords: Malaysia, Asia, Canada, garbage, trash, recycling, plastic, waste, Philippines, cbc news

Id: tuAZhF4fXt8

Length: 2min 49sec (169 seconds)

Published: Tue May 28 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/agha0013]

The companies doing this shit need to be dragged out into the spotlight and publicly shamed.

Companies are being paid by tax payers to collect and recycle the waste, instead they are shipping it to the US to avoid needing export permits, and having a partner in the US then dump it on an unsuspecting nation by mislabeling the contents.

Conservatives right now want to blame Trudeau, Trudeau would love to blame Harper, but the reality is neither is directly responsible, this is corporate fuckery all the way and the damn politicians need to do something real about it.

I don't blame Malaysia and Philippines for this, it's high time North America be forced to deal with its own gargantuan waste problem. We north Americans generate more waste per person than any other society on earth. We just hide it by exporting that waste. China got things started last year by deciding to no longer be the world's plastic dumping ground, and now companies are scramblign to find other places to hide the waste we generate.

Oh, and it's high fucking time governments start working on real legislation to deal with the packaging nightmare the consumer industry has created. While some companies are taking steps on their own, the vast majority are just going to sit and do nothing at all until forced to, so fucking force them!

Consumers can all do their part, but the companies coming up with the ridiculous packaging can make the biggest, fastest impact.

[u/N_R_D]

We made our bed...

[u/Von_Thomson]

Canada isn't taking advantage of anybody. Companies in Asia are buying the containers and Canadian companies are short changing them. Governments should not be involved whatsoever.