Environmental groups yesterday called for Southeast Asian countries to ban waste imports from developed countries to help tackle a pollution crisis, as regional leaders prepare to meet this week in Bangkok.
Southeast Asia has seen a staggering spike in imports of plastic and electronic waste from developed countries after the world’s top recycler, China, banned imports, causing millions of tonnes of the trash to be diverted to less regulated countries.
Thailand tomorrow begins hosting four days of meetings for ASEAN leaders to discuss the region’s most pressing issues.
“Greenpeace Southeast Asia demands that ASEAN leaders put this issue on the agenda during their summits this year and make a united declaration to address the region’s plastic waste crisis,” the group said in a statement.
“Declare an immediate ban on all imports of plastic waste,” it urged.
It was in the interests of ASEAN, whose meetings are being held under the theme of sustainability this year, to ban waste trading, the Ecological Alert and Recovery Thailand (EARTH) Foundation said.
“Welcoming plastics and electronic waste from abroad in the name of development must urgently end,” foundation president Penchom Saetang said.
Some Southeast Asian countries have in recent months been taking action to stem the flow of trash.
Indonesia was the latest to reject trash imports from Canada, following similar moves by Malaysia and the Philippines.
Thailand does not ban plastic waste imports, but it aims to end them by next year.
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