Round trip garbage traffic

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On the outskirts of Manila there is a landfill of more than 20 meters high where waste and debris accumulate for 55 years. There are not only mountains of garbage in the Philippine capital. Also tons of plastics that theoretically arrived there from developed countries to end up in a recycling plant.

Every morning, dozens of children, many of them from neighborhoods where the narco-war launched by the Government hits harder, arrive at the landfill to pick up something that they can then sell or put in their mouths. Lately they only find empty containers with labels from the United States and Germany. Although the place from where those plastics left for the Philippines is only 1,118 kilometers higher, in Hong Kong.

This story has several round trips. Let's start at the beginning, by July 2018, when China banned the arrival of “foreign garbage” to its ports, interrupting an annual flow of seven million tons.

Then the plastics that the Asian giant no longer wanted went to factories and landfills in countries such as the Philippines and Malaysia, now favorite destinations of rich nations to send their leftovers. Even China has gone from receiving these plastics to sending theirs by boat to Southeast Asia. And not precisely the waste of the Chinese, but those sent to them by third countries and that have been accumulating in their ports.

Especially noteworthy is the case of Hong Kong. The former British colony has become one of the main re-exporters of plastic waste. This has been proven by an investigation carried out by a local environmental group and its project The Green Earth, directed by Kylie Yeung Kai-ching. Last year, Hong Kong re-exported 280,000 tons of plastic waste to Southeast Asia that had arrived from the US, Japan, Germany, Great Britain and Mexico.

It was not the first time that this city with a special administrative regime sent waste from third countries to ports other than their own. His favorite destination was mainland China until from Beijing, aware of its rapid industrialization and development, the bolt was thrown to protect its environment. China was no longer that agricultural country that in the 80s sought cheap raw material to recycle. But they had a problem: so many years being the global recipient of waste had caused them to accumulate in their landfills. Especially in Hong Kong. Then they decided to check them out looking south.

Garbage dumps of the world

But from Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand they have said enough. They don't want to be the plastic dump in the world. And less after verifying that many of the companies that send them these containers falsify the documentation of the plastics they carry. They present them as "recyclable," when in reality they are not. And do not hesitate to send the containers back to their origin.

As the Philippines did in July with 25,600 kilos of electronic waste that Hong Kong had sent them. And with another 103 containers that Canada sent them labeling them as recyclable plastics, but that actually contained everything from used diapers to appliances. Malaysia also announced in mid-year that it would return 3,000 tons of waste to countries such as the US, China or Australia. He already did it with five containers with chopped plastics with small aluminum shavings that arrived at the beginning of the year from the port of Valencia.

In an interview with the South China Morning Post, Dr. Chung Shan-shan, director of the program of environmental and public health management at Baptist University, explained that Hong Kong will end up returning plastic waste to their countries of origin and not sending them to Southeast Asia.

"Each country has to take responsibility and become self-sufficient in the management of its own waste." In addition, next year the amendments to the Basel Convention - signed by 180 countries - that regulate international trade in hazardous wastes enter into force and prior consent from importing countries will be required.

Because this garbage traffic goes beyond container transfer. These wastes accumulate in the countries of Southeast Asia, which has led some in some, such as in Malaysia, many citizens see a business opportunity setting up factories dedicated to recycling.

The problem comes when many of them are not licensed [Malaysia has already closed 150] and that most of the plastic that arrives is of such low quality that it is not recyclable. And in the end it ends up burning in landfills, releasing toxic chemicals into the atmosphere and causing health problems, or at sea, leaving thousands of dead fish.

Many of these countries already talk about the "plastic war," and politicians ask neighbors like Hong Kong to stop sending them what they have left over. Before China vetoed the entry of this garbage into its ports, it imported 7,350,000 tons of plastic per year and Hong Kong, another 2,850,000. In total they accounted for almost 70% of all plastic waste that moved annually throughout the world. Since the Asian giant closed its doors, plastic waste exports from Hong Kong to Thailand increased 177% over the previous year. In Malaysia, the second garbage recipient in the financial city increased by 75%.

Garbage traffic continues. And the debate on how to stop it has arrived in December at the World Climate Summit in Madrid.

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