COLOMBO, Colombia.– Officials say Sri Lanka sent the last of several hundred containers full of thousands of tonnes of illegally imported trash to the United Kingdom on Monday, and they say it was a big deal.
Several Asian countries have recently started to fight back against an avalanche of garbage from richer countries by refusing to accept shipments that they don’t want.
Between 2017 and 2019, British garbage landed in Sri Lanka as “worn mattresses, carpets, and rugs.”
Biowaste from hospitals and body parts from mortuaries were also found by customs officers.
The containers were not cold, and some of them had a pungent odour.
On Monday, 45 containers were loaded aboard a ship at a Colombo port, completing a batch of 263 containers with around 3,000 tonnes of garbage.
“There may be other efforts to import such dangerous items, but we will remain attentive and guarantee that this does not occur again,” customs head Vijitha Ravipriya said.
Customs says that in September 2020, the first 21 containers with medical waste were brought back to the United Kingdom.
A local company said they had brought in the waste from the United Kingdom so that they could get springs from worn mattresses and cotton to send to manufacturers in other countries.
However, customs was unable to uncover solid proof of such “resource recovery.”
An environmental group in Sri Lanka asked for the trash to be sent back to its sender, and the appeal was upheld by Sri Lanka’s Court of Appeal in 2020.
Customs said that all of the containers were imported in contravention of international rules controlling the transfer of hazardous materials, including plastics.
Sri Lankan authorities found out in 2019 that the importer had sent about 180 tonnes of garbage that was brought into the country in 2017 and 2018 to India and Dubai.
The Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia have also sent back hundreds of containers of waste to their own countries.
