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Waste Trade: Asia Pacific

Waste trade is the international trade of waste between countries for further treatment, disposal, or recycling. Often, toxic or hazardous wastes are exported by developed countries to developing countries, such as those in Asia Pacific. Since 1988, more than a quarter of a billion tonnes of plastic waste has been exported around the world. If the world is serious about tackling marine plastic pollution, the open trade of plastic waste from rich to weaker economies must end.

Plug the Leak - what's wrong with plastic waste exports?

A lot of consumer plastic waste sorted for recycling often gets shipped to other countries instead. There are many issues behind shipping plastic waste, this explainer focuses on 3 critical problems. It draws from the experience of 3 countries, namely, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Turkey in dealing with legacy plastic waste - the build-up of plastic waste over years, shipped in from other countries, and dumped on developing countries with poor waste management infrastructure.

Why is ending plastic waste trade important?

Source: Plastic Waste Transparency Project, Basel Action Network
World over, due to the unsustainable production and consumption of plastic coupled with limited waste management capacity, countries have been exporting their waste to other countries with lower labour and recovery costs. For years, China was the primary destination for most of the world’s plastic waste and the impacts on its ecosystems, waste workers and other communities were devastating. In January 2018, China’s National Sword policy effectively stopped imports of plastic waste to the country, and plastic waste exports from the US, Europe, Australia, Japan, and other industrialised economies were diverted to Southeast Asia.

Many importing countries are ill-equipped in terms of infrastructure to handle their domestic recycling, let alone that from other regions. Local plastic recyclers end up focusing on recycling easily available imported plastics, instead of developing domestic systems of waste collection and segregation.

As dumpsites expand and imported plastic waste is increasingly co-incinerated as fuel in cement kilns or other industrial boilers, as opposed to being recycled back into plastic, this severely affects the environmental health, social wellbeing and economic development of recipient countries.

Past Events

  • The Plastic Amendments: Are we fulfilling the Promise?

    Basel OEWG-14 Side Event

    Date: 25 Jun 2024

    Time: 18:15–19:45 CEST

    READ MORE
  • Panel discussion: How Plastic Waste Shipments Undermine Real Solutions to Ocean Plastic Pollution

    United Nations Ocean Conference: Side Event (Virtual)

    Date: 28th June 2022

    Time: 13:00-14:30 Lisbon | 14:00 – 15:30 Paris/Berlin | 15:00 – 16:30 Turkey | 17:30 – 19:00 India | 20:00 – 21:30 Philippines/Kuala Lumpur | 08:00 – 09:30 New York
    READ MORE
  • The Global Plastics En’Treaty: why waste trade to the Asia-Pacific needs to stop

    Where: Meetspace A, Artotel Thamrin, Jakarta (map link here)

    Date: 03 November, 2022

    Time: 14:00 – 15:00 Indonesia | 15:00 – 16:00 Malaysia & the Philippines
    PRESS RELEASE

Reports

None

Policy Brief | State of Play: The Plastic Waste Trade in Asia (November 2024)

Community Legal Help and Public Interest Centre (C-HELP) & Basel Action Network (BAN) | 2024

This policy brief critically examines how continued plastic waste trade under the guise of recycling, is a symptom of plastic over-production, and how the Global Plastic Treaty can fix it.

Policy

Nina's Action Stop Plastic Pollution

Break Free From Plastic | 2025

A report on youth activist, Aeshnina Azzahra Aqilani's action at the fifth intergovernmental negotiations for the Global Plastics Treaty, in Busan, South Korea. Through her inspired action, she calls for a global reduction in plastic production and a ban on toxic chemicals in plastic manufacturing.

Policy

Enough - Fighting Global Plastic Pollution

Asia Pacific | 2024

Nina's Journey at INC4 - Aeshnina Azzahra Aqilani, or Nina, was invited by the UN Environment Programme to attend the Global Plastics Treaty talks in Ottawa, Canada, from April 23-29, 2024. Representing Indonesia among 170 countries, and as a global youth ambassador, Nina actively participated in discussions, workshops, and rallies, sharing her insights on the plastic waste crisis and proposing innovative solutions. Here's a report on her incredible advocacy efforts at the INC-4.

Policy

Trashed: Elephant in the Room: Plastic Waste Trade in Asia Pacific

Break Free From Plastic | 2022

In the wake of UNEA 5.2, as global leaders work towards an international legally binding agreement to end plastic pollution, the issue of plastic waste trade is largely ignored. This briefing paper tackles the elephant in the room, with a focus on issues in Asia Pacific, to make a case for issuing stringent controls to protect weaker economies from plastic waste trade from developing countries.

Waste Trade Blogs

Waste trade, often referred to as ‘waste colonialism’, highlights the power imbalance between economically developed countries of the Global North, typically the exporters of waste, and the less affluent nations that serve as recipients. These blogs hope to distil global and regional waste trade matters and provide an overview of the harms caused by the waste trade in Asia Pacific.
Policy, Press Release, Waste Trade

Tunisian Environmental Activist, Semia Gharbi, wins 2025 Goldman Prize for challenging waste trafficking between Italy and Tunisia

April 23, 2025 | Break Free From Plastic

Between May and July 2020, Italian company Sviluppo Risorse Ambientali, based in Polla, Italy, shipped 282 containers of mixed municipal waste (including household waste) across the Mediterranean to Soreplast, a Tunisian company. Semia and her colleagues at Réseau Tunisie Verte supported the government’s response and persuaded officials to return the 282 containers of illegal, non-recyclable waste to Italy.
Press Release, Waste Trade

The Global Plastics Treaty Can And Must Complement the Basel Convention

November 29, 2024 | Comms Hub

Corporate Accountability, Policy, Press Release, Waste Trade

Study by European University blames Global South for plastic pollution, overlooks the role of plastic industry and waste trade

September 6, 2024 | Break Free From Plastic

The study perpetuates misleading narratives and ignores the impacts of waste colonialism
Waste Trade

Waste Trade: A Form of Colonialism

August 1, 2024 | Mageswari Sangaralingam

A short explainer on waste trade across Global South, and how it is a new form of waste colonialism as it perpetuates environmental and social injustice.
Member Stories, Waste Trade

IN-FOCUS: The Direction of Imported Plastic Waste, a documentary from Vietnam

February 19, 2024 | Comms Hub and Devayani Khare

This blog delves into the intricate layers of Vietnam's burgeoning plastic production and its consequential reliance on imported plastic waste. It aims to shed light on the complexities of the plastic waste trade, not just in Vietnam but in other waste-recipient countries in Southeast Asia as well.
Member Stories, Waste Trade

Fighting Waste Colonialism: Asian Organisations Respond to EU’s New Waste Trade Regulations

January 30, 2024 | Devayani Khare

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