Globally and in Europe, civil society organisations have been tirelessly advocating to stop the exploitative practice of the plastic waste trade from high-income countries like the European Union (EU).
The current EU Waste Shipment Regulation (EU-WSR) does not provide enough supervision on the wastes coming to recipient countries; evidence on the ground shows that these wastes have not been properly managed and cause significant environment and public health hazards.
The lack of precision in the language of the EU-WSR has allowed for illegal waste shipments to be exported from the EU to within or outside of the region. This has resulted in the non-uniform application of the law, which further weakens its enforcement by the authorities in each specific country.
Civil society organisations including Sahabat Alam Malaysia sent the following letter to all Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) within the Department of Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI Committee) calling for a plastic waste export ban.