Sun 27 September 2020:
Sri Lanka says it is sending 21 containers of recycled waste back to the UK after they were found to contain hazardous material.
Customs officials said hospital waste, plastic and polythene was discovered in the majority of the 263 containers imported in 2017 by a private firm, adding that 21 containers had left Sri Lanka on Saturday.
The container’s contents were supposed to comprise used mattresses, carpeting and rugs, but had also contained hospital waste, officials said.
“The shipper had agreed to take back these 21 containers,” customs spokesman Sunil Jayaratne told AFP on Sunday. “We are working to secure compensation from those responsible for getting the containers into the country.”
Customs did not reveal the type of hospital waste, but previous illegally imported containers had included rags, bandages and body parts from mortuaries, according to officials.
Another 242 containers from Britain, which the government said were holding illegal waste in violation of international law, remain abandoned at the same port and at a free trade zone outside Colombo. They arrived in 2017 and 2018.
A Sri Lankan investigation last year into nearly 3,000 tonnes of illegally imported hazardous waste found the importer had reshipped about 180 tonnes to India and Dubai in 2017 and 2018.
Several other countries in the region have recently begun to return waste imported from foreign countries. In January, Malaysia returned 42 shipping containers of illegally imported plastic waste to the UK.
