News / Treated like trash: South-east Asia vows to return rubbish from the west

© Steve Allen

It seems South-east Asia has had enough of all the rubbish. In this case, literally. The Guardian reports that over the past 12 months, western waste has been gathering along the shores of Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. In April a Malaysian government investigation revealed that waste from the UK, Australia, the US and Germany was pouring into the country illegally, falsely declared as ’other imports’. Malaysia sent back five containers of illegal rubbish from Spain and this week said it ...