Supermarket bags, milk cartons and old footy jerseys: Thousands of tonnes of plastic waste exported from Australia is covering Indonesian villages in steaming piles of toxic rubbish
- Villages in East Java region of Indonesia are being blanketed by global rubbish
- Locals switching to waste industry as easier way to make money than rice crops
- Local environment groups allege plastic waste is being smuggled to the region
- Global waste exports are an issue since China cracked down on importing waste
Among the mountains of rubbish blanketing villages in the East Java region of Indonesia are Coles supermarket bags, Woolworths milk cartons, and even a Northern Territory footy jersey.
Australia’s massive contribution to the plastic waste flooding these villages is undeniable – with Indonesia becoming the second largest export destination for our rubbish since China cracked down on the practice in recent years.
An audit by a local environment coalition alleges thousands of tonnes of plastic waste from across the globe is being smuggled into East Java every month among paper shipments to be recycled in mills, according to The Australian.
Indonesia becoming the second largest export destination for Australian rubbish since China cracked down on the practice in recent years (pictured; a village in East Java)
Indonesian environment groups recently protested Australia’s involvement in the waste export industry
Australian waste management companies Cleanaway and Auswaste export millions of kilograms of waste paper to East Java but have told The Australian they are not involved in any smuggling of plastics.
‘Every waste shipment sent by Cleanaway to Indonesia is inspected and approved prior to export by local contractors for Indonesian Customs,’ Cleanaway told the publication, adding they have never had a shipment rejected for plastic contamination.
‘We believe material we send to Indonesia and other destinations will be recycled in a proper manner,’ Auswaste managing director Vincent Liang said.
The village of Bangun is one of those in the region that has embraced the new industry of dealing with global waste from the West.
The streets and rice fields are now used to harvest piles of rubbish as they are laid out to dry in the sun by locals before being sorted sold to tofu factories in the region to keep their furnaces burning.
The region’s tofu industry switched to burning rubbish instead of wood over a decade ago as it was a cheaper option with little thought being given to the acrid, toxic smoke billowing from their chimneys.
‘Sometimes people complain about the smoke and liquid waste. Sometimes it’s us who complains. We tell the boss, ‘this waste doesn’t smell good’ and he lets us switch to wood for a day,’ one worker Kasning told the publication.
Streets and rice fields in villages in East Java are now used to harvest piles of rubbish as they are laid out to dry in the sun by locals before being sorted sold to tofu factories in the region