Malaysia will ban plastic waste imports from the U.S. starting Tuesday because of America’s failure to abide by the Basel Convention treaty on international waste transfers, in a move that could have significant consequences for California.
Malaysia emerged as a major destination for U.S. waste after China banned American waste imports in 2018. California shipped 864 shipping containers, or more than 10 million pounds of plastic waste, to Malaysia in 2024, according to the Basel Action Network, an advocacy group. That was second only to Georgia among U.S. states.
Under Malaysian waste guidelines announced last month, the country will no longer accept plastic waste and hazardous waste from nations that didn’t ratify the Basel Convention, the international treaty designed to reduce the international movement of hazardous and other waste. The U.S. is one of just a handful of countries, including Fiji and Haiti, that hasn’t signed the pact.
Malaysia will continue to accept plastic waste from Basel signatories. However, exports from those countries will be subject to pre-inspection at the nation of origin, according to the new guidelines
Steve Wong, the chief executive of Fukutomi, a Hong Kong-based global plastic recycling company, suggests it is already having an effect on shipping ports.
“With scrap inventories building up at ports and yards, and no clear guidance yet on the enforcement discretion or timeline of Malaysia’s new system, the market for imported plastic waste has effectively frozen,” he wrote in an email to people who follow recycling trends, which was shared with The Times.
Much of California’s plastic waste is sent overseas. A Los Angeles port spokesman said he was unaware of the impending ban. Long Beach port officials didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
An Oakland port spokesman said that facility “hasn’t historically seen much volume in this commodity, so we don’t anticipate any impact from this change.”
According to Wong’s email, the coming ban has already disrupted trash export routes significantly, particularly for the plastics used in grocery bags, trash can liners and food wrap.
“The scrap plastics market in Malaysia has come to a virtual standstill amid tightening import regulations and widespread uncertainty ahead of the new control regime taking effect on 1 July 2025,” Wong wrote in the email. “Recyclers, traders, and suppliers are all reporting minimal or no movement of plastic waste.”
Jim Puckett of the Seattle-based Basel Action Network cheered Malaysia’s decision.
“The ‘recycling’ is doing more harm than good as only a fraction of the exports ever get recycled,” said Puckett, the group’s founder and chief of strategic direction. “The plastics that are not feasible to be recycled are often hazardous, or contain microplastics, which are commonly dumped, burned, or released into waterways. The export of plastic waste for recycling is a complete sham and it is a relief that the U.S. contribution to this plastic waste shell game is increasingly outlawed.”
According to California’s waste agency, CalRecycle, the state exported 11.3 million tons of recyclable materials overseas to places such as Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Taiwan, South Korea, Mexico and Canada — in 2022.
That number includes 100 million pounds of scrap plastic. Although the Basel Action Network’s numbers indicate more than 10 million pounds went to Malaysia, CalRecycle’s 2022 report didn’t break down plastic exports to individual nations.
A spokesperson for CalRecycle said that California “is working to reduce plastic pollution in our state and around the world” and that exports of scrap plastic have significantly declined over the last 10 years.
Maria West, the agency’s communications director, said that in 2018, California exported roughly 421,000 tons, or nearly 842 million pounds of plastic scrap to Malaysia. She said that number dropped 98% in 2024 to 8,000 tons, or about 16 million pounds.
Several major waste companies in California, including Athens Services and Recology, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Critics of California’s waste system say a 1989 state law that requires cities and jurisdictions to divert waste from landfills led to an increase in the export of waste overseas.
Until 2018, China was the major importer of U.S. plastic waste. However, after China implemented it’s National Sword policy — which banned the import of most plastic waste — nations began sending their waste elsewhere, often to less economically advantaged nations such as Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand.
Although some of the plastic is recycled in these nations, much of it is incinerated or placed in landfills, where it chokes rivers and flows into the ocean.
Waste advocates such as the Basel Action Network and participants in the Basel Convention are working to reduce the international movement of contaminated, nonrecyclable plastic from economically advantaged countries, such as the United States, to less advantaged nations.
Jan Dell, the president of LastBeachCleanUp, a Laguna Beach-based anti-plastic waste organization, praised the Malaysian decision.
“We’re calling on cities, waste companies, brokers, and shipping companies to respect Malaysia’s sovereign law and STOP all plastic waste shipments,” she wrote in an email. The plastic waste must NOT be re-rerouted to other poor countries.”
In 2022, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 54, a landmark plastic law that is designed to establish a circular economy for single-use plastic products and packaging. The law addresses the export of plastic waste and requires product manufacturers to certify that their products are being recycled or composted in ways that reduce environmental pollution and minimize health effects for people who live near where the product is sent.
CalRecycle is currently working on drafting regulations that will enable the implementation of the law, but West, the agency’s spokeswoman, said the law requires that for any material to be considered recycled, it “must go to responsible end markets, ensuring material actually gets recycled instead of becoming waste in landfills or the environment.”
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