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Scrap plastic or toxic waste? Batam suspicious of containers from North America, Europe
Customs and Excise officials are looking into 65 containers of plastic trash shipped from North America and Europe to a port in Batam, Riau Islands, which are suspected to contain hazardous materials.
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Dumping ground: Indonesian customs officers examine one of 65 containers full of imported trash at Batu Ampar Port in Batam, Riau Islands, on Monday. Indonesia returned five other containers of trash to the United States recently. (The Jakarta Post/Fadli )
Officials said the containers were also filled with unsorted garbage, including children toys and diapers exuding a stench, in contradiction with claims by the importing companies that the containers contained plastic pellets.
“We are still waiting for lab reports from the customs office. If [the containers] really contain hazardous waste, we will recommend that the Trade Ministry revoke the licenses of the importing companies,” Batam Mayor Muhammad Rudi said on Monday.
The Indonesian public has become increasingly concerned about the surge of imported waste through ports in Riau Islands and East Java. The Environment and Forestry Ministry has ordered five containers to be returned from Tanjung Perak Port in Surabaya, East Java, to United States upon discovering unsorted waste inside them, including hazardous waste. While allowing imports of recyclable plastics, the country has banned imports of hazardous waste.
An economist from Batam International University (UIB), Suyono Saputra, questioned companies' claims that the waste constituted raw materials and said he suspected that exporting countries were only looking to dump their waste in Indonesia.
