Sri Lanka returns at least 3,000 tonnes of garbage to United Kingdom

By Team Newsable | First Published Feb 21, 2022, 6:03 PM IST

Several Asian countries have begun turning back undesirable cargo in recent years due to an influx of waste from wealthier nations. Between 2017 and 2019, British garbage came in Sri Lanka and was labelled as "old mattresses, carpets, and rugs."

Sri Lanka transported the final of several hundred containers containing thousands of tonnes of illegally imported rubbish to Britain on Monday, according to authorities. Several Asian countries have begun turning back undesirable cargo in recent years due to an influx of waste from wealthier nations. Between 2017 and 2019, British garbage came in Sri Lanka and was labelled as "old mattresses, carpets, and rugs."

According to customs officers, it also included biowaste from hospitals, including body parts from mortuaries. The containers were not cold, and several had a strong odour. The 45 containers carried aboard a ship at a Colombo port on Monday were part of the final batch of 263 containers containing around 3,000 tonnes of garbage.

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"There may be further efforts to import such dangerous items, but we will remain attentive and guarantee that this does not happen again," said customs head Vijitha Ravipriya. According to customs, the first 21 containers containing medical waste were returned to the United Kingdom in September 2020.

A local firm had imported the garbage from the United Kingdom, claiming that it intended to recover the springs from used mattresses and cotton to be reshipped to manufacturers in other countries. However, customs was unable to establish solid proof of such "resource recovery."

A local environmental activist organisation filed a case seeking to return the rubbish to its sender, and Sri Lanka's Court of Appeal upheld the claim in 2020. Customs said that all of the containers were brought into the country in breach of international rules controlling the transportation of hazardous waste, including plastics. In 2019, a Sri Lankan inquiry discovered that the importer had reshipped around 180 tonnes of garbage carried into the country to India and Dubai in 2017 and 2018. Hundreds of garbage containers have also been returned to their countries of origin by the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

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