As the COP29 conference is ongoing in Baku, Azerbaijan, there has been an overwhelming focus on reducing carbon emissions and promoting sustainable development. While these two elements are crucial aspects of fighting climate change, what gets ignored by these policymakers is the issue of trash dumping, especially in the Global South. 

On average, the world produces about two billion tons of waste annually, and 1/10^th of this waste enters the global trash trade.

According to a report by the United Nations Environmental Programme released in May 2024, municipal waste is set to grow 2/3^rd by 2050, while managing them will be highly challenging. The report later added that the Global South struggles with proper waste management due to the lack of collective systems.

However, what gets missed is how this waste ends up in the Global South in the first place. 

The waste management ‘cycle’ begins when consumers send their trash or recyclables to the local municipal trash collection area. Afterward, the waste is sent to international ports, most often to poorer countries in the Global South. 

On a macro level, the European Union is the largest plastic waste exporter, followed by the U.S. In 2020 alone, the EU exported clothing waste to Pakistan, the UAE, Tunisia, and other developing countries. Some activists call this practice a form of environmental racism and waste colonialism. 

In 2018, Malaysia was the largest importer of plastic waste from the U.S., Europe, and Japan. In 2020, Germany sent about 16 plastic waste containers to Vietnam. In Chile, about 59,000 tonnes of clothing waste arrive annually in the northern part of the country. Western countries often send toxic electronic waste to the Gulf Countries and Guinea. 

However, at the same time, countries like Germany are celebrated for being one of the world’s top recyclers. As Jan Dell, the founder of The Last Beach Cleanup, correctly stated, 

“As the EU lectures the world to have high green ambitions, it is blatantly hypocritical and a brazen ploy to export and pretend plastic is recycled rather than banning single-use plastics or incinerating [them] at home and counting the carbon emitted.” 

This trash dumping has had negative health impacts in the Global South. For example, in India, in municipal waste in Bengaluru, there were high concentrations of iron, zinc, and heavy water, making the groundwater undrinkable. Additionally, it has contributed to lower air quality, resulting in lung cancer and asthma being more common across developing countries. In Surabaya, Indonesia, local communities used plastic waste as cooking fuel when making tofu. 

Importantly, plastic waste comes in several forms, such as “paper bales, plastics in electronic and electrical products, textile waste, rubber, and tire waste,” further adding to the environmental and health damage. 

In response, several countries from the Global South have passed laws banning waste imports. In 2018, the Chinese government banned imports of plastic and other materials, and in 2019, India banned plastic waste imports. In 2020, the Malaysian government sent about 150 shipping containers of plastic waste back to the U.S., France, Germany, and other wealthy countries and insisted that Malaysia will not be a garbage dump for the world.

That same year, Sri Lanka, Thailand, the Philippines, and other countries sent waste back to the U.K. 

In 2021, Türkiye banned plastic waste imports following an investigation that revealed that the British dumped trash on beaches and roadsides.

Recently, the Vietnamese announced that plastic waste will be prohibited from 2025. Aside from these efforts, environmental activists in Europe are demanding that it offer compensation to the African countries where it sends waste. Likewise, ecological activists in Greece blocked the effort of those German ships to send more waste to Vietnam. 

The existence of trash dumping in the Global South is one of the many forms of hypocrisies that exist within climate change and environmental laws.

While policymakers in Brussels and Washington insist that climate change is a global problem that requires international cooperation, apparently, waste management is another country’s problem for these same environmentally conscious policymakers.