By exporting trash, rich countries put their waste out of sight and out of mind | By Helena Varkkey for CNNOpinion
Dr. Helena Varkkey is the author of the book"Transboundary Haze in Southeast Asia: Palm Oil and Patronage". She is based at the Department of International and Strategic Studies, University of Malaya, Malaysia. The views expressed in this commentary are her own. View more opinion at CNN.
In most neighborhoods in the developed world, municipal services cart away trash on a regular basis. When consumers diligently separate their recyclables from organic waste at the source, trust in their local recycling systems absolves them of much of the mental guilt of consumption. This is where the global dimension of the problem begins. It is often cheaper for developed countries to ship containers of plastic waste halfway around the world to be"recycled" in developing countries than to deal with the trash themselves. While plastic importing and recycling can be a legitimate and lucrative"green" industry in the developing world, rogue firms find it even more profitable to either incinerate plastics or dump them in landfills.
Plastic pollution is killing these animals 01:22 The Basel Convention was specifically designed to prevent the transfer of hazardous waste from developed to developing countries. Importantly, the convention places the burden on the exporting countries not to engage in irresponsible dumping elsewhere. However, the convention does not differentiate recyclable plastic from contaminated mixed plastic waste, which has provided a loophole for the export of any and all plastic waste.
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