Sri Lanka returns 242 containers of hazardous waste to UK

Twenty containers of hazardous waste were returned on Friday October 30 from Sri Lanka to the United Kingdom.

Antara Foto / Didik Suhartono / via REUTERS

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Sri Lanka began returning more than two hundred containers of plastic and medical waste to the United Kingdom on Friday, October 30.

A fight against the traffic of waste from developed countries which joins that of several Asian countries.

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With our correspondent in the region

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It was on board the "Texas Triumph" that 20 containers of hazardous waste were returned, Friday, October 30, from Sri Lanka to the United Kingdom.

A total of 242 containers will take the same route, including 65 more as of next week.

This return to sender is the result of a legal battle that began in 2019. The waste was imported in 2017 as used mattress metals.

In reality, customs had discovered tons of plastic waste, but also medical waste: bandages, rags and even human remains.

The Sri Lanka Court of Appeal was then seized.

British justice for its part is investigating the companies at the origin of this traffic, in violation of the Basel protocol on the movement of hazardous materials.

An illegal trade amounted to several million dollars by the customs of Sri Lanka.

Several Asian countries have refused for two years to be the dumping ground for developed countries.

Sri Lanka thus joins the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, which have returned waste containers to their country of origin.

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• Sri Lanka

• Environment

• Waste

• consumption

• UK

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