It was just recently that we found out Australia was dumping tonnes of waste on our Malaysian soil. This was after China stopped accepting plastic waste from Australia. Now it has been discovered that Britain is sending their own plastic waste here.
A Mountain of Trash
A mountain of plastic waste was found in a wasteland somewhere near Ipoh. It stands to about 6 metres tall and stretches out as far as the eye can see. It is insane how much plastic waste is being dumped here.
The logos and marks of British supermarkets and even council recycling departments were found all over. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is a celebrity chef in the UK and was the man who stumbled upon all this trash.
He was filming for a BBC documentary titled ‘War On Plastic With Hugh and Anita’ when he was faced with the mountain of garbage. Sifting through all the plastic, he finds familiar logos and brands from Britain. This includes popular brands such as Waitrose, Tesco, and Marks and Spencers.
Some of the trash also have the recycling logo on them. He deduces that many British citizens had actually put in the effort to recycle their waste, only for it to be wasted.
Hugh says in exasperation “When we put this in our recycling back in the UK, we think we’re doing the right thing. I do my recycling and I feel good about it. At least I used to – I don’t feel so good now. I feel embarrassed, I feel ashamed, I feel angry, I feel I’ve been lied to.”
The Effects
The trash that has been shipped to Malaysia is simply dumped or burned, which leads to toxic fumes. These fumes can affect the villages near the dumping site. Millions of tiny ground-up particles of the plastic enter the water and pollutes the river.
This is very devastating news and we hope that the Malaysian government will take the right course of action. We should not let our country be some place where others can just dump their trash. It is bad for society, the environment, and our country. Let’s hope this stops soon.
