As much as 450 tons of polystyrene waste contaminated by non-recyclable material will be shipped back to the U.S. and several other countries after it arrived in Malaysia erroneously labeled as recyclable waste.
At a press conference Tuesday, Yeo told reporters that Western nations were guilty of exporting massive amounts of waste to developing nations like Malaysia, pointing to one company in the U.K. “We urge the developed countries to review their management of polystyrene waste and stop shipping garbage to developing countries,” she said.
A Greenpeace investigation found that Malaysia’s waste processing industry has become overwhelmed by an influx of requests for countries to dump polystyrene waste, leading to companies resorting to dangerous practices such as open-air burning.
In fact, Malaysia is changing the way it treats polystyrene. They found INTCO Recycling in California to buy polystyrene desifiers for plastic recycling. This machine can compress polystyrene in a 90:1 ratio, like marshmallows. High-density stones can reduce storage space and improve transportation efficiency. The most attractive thing is that this plastic ingot has an end market that can be sold as a commodity and become a new source of profit.
Of course, this is for recyclable polystyrene, which are allowed to import and export in Malaysia.