The government of Malaysia has introduced stricter rules governing plastic waste imports, which have taken effect on 1 July. Imports will now only be permitted if the country of dispatch is a party to the Basel Convention and if shipments are approved by Sirim Berhad, an agency under the Ministry of Trade and Industry. Advocacy organisation Basel Action Network (BAN), which opposes the export of non-recyclable or contaminated plastic waste, particularly to less developed countries, highlighted the regulatory change last week.
The environmental NGO welcomed the move. "This new law will finally bring Malaysia into alignment with the Basel Convention, including the 2019 Plastic Waste Amendments and its trade ban on certain plastic wastes between parties of the Convention, such as Malaysia, and non-parties, such as the United States," according to BAN.
"We are ecstatic that this new law aims to stop much of the harmful plastic waste moving in containers each day from Los Angeles to Port Klang under the guise of recycling," said Jim Puckett, the organisation's founder and chief of strategic direction. He added that "the 'recycling' is doing more harm than good as only a fraction of the exports ever get recycled. The plastics that are not feasible to be recycled are often hazardous, or contain microplastics, which are commonly dumped, burned, or released into waterways".
According to a Customs Order issued by the Minister of Finance at the end of May, all shipments of plastic waste to Malaysia must be accompanied by a certificate of approval (COA). After the end of a three-month transition period, shipments will also have to undergo pre-shipment inspection. In cases involving irregular shipments, including false declarations, materials will be returned to the country of origin and further legal actions may be taken. Additional information is available in Sirim's "Guidelines for Importation & Inspection of Waste Plastic" and in a presentation on the revised regulations.
For waste plastic shipments from Basel Convention parties, the acceptance criterion for target material homogeneity is set at 99.5 per cent. Mixed target material can only be accepted for mixtures of polyethylene (PE), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and polypropylene (PP) "from single product", provided they are destined for separate recycling of each material, according to Sirim's updated importation and inspection guidelines.
Moreover, non-target materials such as stone, dirt, sand, paper, glass, wood and metal may not make up any more than 2 per cent of the shipment by weight. The guidelines also lay out a list of zero-tolerance "prohibited contaminants" including food, oil, hazardous and e-wastes and personal hygiene articles. BAN maintains that "meeting these standards will be next to impossible for post-consumer plastic".
Second most important destination for EU waste plastics exports
OECD states currently send more waste plastic to Malaysia than to any other non-OECD country, according to BAN. EU waste plastic exports to the Southeast Asian nation and other non-OECD countries have been restricted to only clean, easily recyclable plastic waste classified under entry B3011 of the "green list" since the beginning of 2021 following the incorporation of the 2019 Basel Convention amendments into the EU's Waste Shipments Regulation (WSR).
The most recent revision of the WSR will introduce a complete ban on exports of plastic waste from the European Union to non-OECD countries from 21 November 2026. This ban can be lifted no earlier than two and a half years later on 21 May 2029, subject to an application from the recipient country and compliance with a set of strict conditions.
In 2024, Malaysia was the second most important destination country for EU plastic waste exported to non-EU countries. According to Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office, member states exported some 1.5m tonnes of waste plastics to third countries last year, with 23 per cent destined for Malaysia. Turkey remained the largest export market, accounting for 28 per cent of direct exports.
