Global north must end waste colonialism, says Greenpeace Malaysia
"This is waste colonialism. No country should be used as a dumping ground and all countries should deal with their own waste problem," said Greenpeace Malaysia campaign lead Heng Kiah Chun.
He said imported waste was often connected to syndicates trafficking waste towards the global south.
After China's foreign waste import ban in 2018, the syndicates have turned to other countries to dump their waste.
"It is crucial that we address the root causes of the problem of illegal e-waste recycling, which are corruption, weak enforcement and inadequate laws," Heng said.
He said globally, producers must enforce Extended Producer Responsibility for their products, which assigns producers responsibility for the end-of-life of products.
"The producers, these big businesses, are profiting from electronic devices, thus they should have a better collection, repair and reuse mechanism," he told the New Straits Times.
Nonetheless, there is also a responsibility domestically to ensure e-waste from formal infrastructures do not seep into the illegal or informal system.
"In Malaysia, dealing with domestic post-consumer e-waste management is underdeveloped, but progress is promising.
"For example, we have collection services that pay freelance workers to pick up e-waste from homes, cash rewards in exchange for e-waste and prepaid Pos Malaysia services for e-waste deliveries from out-of-coverage areas.
"However, this shouldn't be an excuse for other countries to keep sending e-waste to Malaysia."
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