Paris (AFP)
France fined 192,000 euros to a brokerage company for sending 20 containers of plastic waste in Malaysia, which then sent them back to France, the Ministry of Ecological Transition said on Thursday. evokes a first.
The containers had been convoyed this summer, before being sent back in the wake of Malaysia, which found them non-compliant and notified France, said the ministry, confirming information from the Parisian.
The ministry said it then went back to the waste brokerage company, based in the south of France. The name of the company was not disclosed.
This "administrative fine", which is accompanied by a report to the court, is a first in France, while the countries of Southeast Asia multiply for the last few months the referrals of this type under the terms of the Basel on hazardous waste.
"By imposing this very heavy fine, France sends a clear signal to some brokerage companies, and their customers - the recycling companies - that they put an end to these practices," says the ministry. .
Since June, for example, Jakarta has returned several hundred containers of waste deemed non-compliant (garbage blending, plastic packaging and hazardous waste) to their country of origin, United States, Great Britain, Germany, France, Hong Kong and Australia.
China's decision in 2018 to stop the import of plastic waste has created chaos in the global recycling market. Developed countries have had to find new markets for their waste, submerging several Southeast Asian countries, which have in turn rebuffed.
Paris expects to receive new containers, along with other countries. As for the two returned this summer from Indonesia to Malaysia, the brokerage said it had recycled content on site, according to the ministry.
© 2019 AFP