Plastiques : la vérité derrière le recyclage – Greenwashing – Scandale – Documentaire – RTS

Quelle est la réalité de la filière du recyclage des plastiques ?

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Cette enquête révèle la tragédie environnementale qui se cache derrière le greenwashing des enseignes de la grande distribution. Fin 2018, la Chine a stoppé l’importation des déchets plastiques du monde entier pour recycler et utiliser les résidus comme combustibles. Depuis, les déchets de nombreux pays européens finissent majoritairement en Indonésie, car les expédier là-bas coute beaucoup moins cher que les recycler en Europe. À Java, dans l’immense port de Surabaya, une contrebande de milliers de tonnes de plastiques importés illégalement dans les containers de papiers fait vivre les villages noyés dans les fumées toxiques des résidus plastiques non recyclables.

“Plastiques : une filière pas si propre”
Un reportage réalisé par Isabelle DUCRET pour l’émission “Temps Présent” diffusé sur la RTS Radio Télévision Suisse – 2020

-We, the Swiss, are the trash can champions. With 700 kilos per year, per person, Switzerland is the 3rd largest producer of waste. But we are also recycling champions: for glass, cardboard and PET bottles. But for other plastics, like large laundry detergent bottles, there is often nothing at all.

The Swiss produce a lot of plastic waste. Including PET and industrial plastic, that’s 125 kilos per year per person. A third are just packaging. Disturbing music … At the Serbeco company, we are waste professionals. Plastic is complex to recycle. Bertrand Girod prepared a demonstration for us. How much does all that represent?

-That’s about a hundred kilos. The equivalent of one person’s plastic production each year. -Why is it so complicated to recycle plastic? -We should talk about plastics. We have different plastics, even products made of several kinds of plastic. They are still partially attached to each other.

We can and have techniques that allow sorting to be automated. Well, such a product, made up of several plastics, today, there is no solution. -There is no solution… How many kinds of plastic do you have there? -Three. Plus a paper label stuck behind. So for such a product, that makes four different products.

-Is it unimaginable in Switzerland to have people who would sort things out? -If we cannot already, by automated means, make this recycling chain profitable, with the cost of salaries, we will not be able to do it manually. -You, frankly, when you go shopping, do you realize this problem of plastic layers?

Do you pay attention to packaging? -In general, yes. But today we didn’t have much time. We moved a little quickly, but we are attentive. -What don’t you buy? -I try to avoid packaging with the plastic that covers the biscuits, the cardboard… I think my husband took a package. -Where is he ?

-Hidden somewhere. -Maybe that? -No, not that one. Ah, there you go ! That’s it, that’s it, typically. The product to avoid. -Right next to the shopping center, the Saturday morning market and its regulars. -I have to use plastic. -Well listen, here it is… -Is that important to you? -Yes. -For what ?

-I don’t think it’s good to put plastic in my food. And then for the planet. -All the packaging shocks you? -Completely; especially since I buy organic. Most organic products are packaged in plastic, I don’t understand… -We’ve heard this phrase a lot. Greenpeace Switzerland has called out supermarkets on their use of plastic.

A definitive report. -Swiss food retailers, such as Migros, Coop, Aldi play an important role in this waste crisis. Many of the products they offer for sale end up as plastic waste. When asked how much plastic they use, we get no answer. This is an absolute lack of transparency.

We don’t see any desire to resolve the problem. No targets to reduce plastic packaging either. -We said to ourselves that they were still going to talk to us… Well no! Migros and Coop showed no more enthusiasm. Coop refused any discussion and even forbade us from filming in its stores.

As for Migros, we were sent to the shores of Lake Zurich, to Konsumenten Tagung, Consumer Day. This year, it addressed the theme of plastic. But as they know us, they expect us firmly. Brouhaha -Do you know the rules of the game? -What rules? -Would you like an interview with the director?

-Yes. -He can’t, he has to leave. -No chance ? -No chance. -During this Migros Day, the public learns how the orange giant is tackling the plastic crisis. We would like to speak to this man, Fabrice Zumbrunnen, the CEO of Migros. -Of course, we also make mistakes. For example,

And this was pointed out to us by a customer, does it make sense to sell pieces of apple in plastic? Yes… Ladies and gentlemen, we sold this product well. People laugh But it is no longer part of the assortment. What do we really want to do? What compromises are we prepared to accept?

Are we willing to give up good sales? Here, it’s a good example, because the pressure did not come from management, but from our customers who told us: “That’s insane.” -As soon as the conference ends, we try everything. The process is cavalier, but it is our only chance

To have the voice of Migros in this documentary. We don’t get the interview, but Migros will finally open its doors to us. The one who leads the visit is Tristan Cerf, the fiery spokesperson for Migros. We gave him work: if only to finally articulate the mysterious figure of “how many tonnes of plastic

Does Migros use per year to package its products?” -It was necessary to do a whole calculation to know how to define the general packaging mass in relation to plastic. Migros needs 20,000 t of plastic to be able to package the items it produces. -This figure is interesting, because Migros proudly announced in 2018

That it had reduced its packaging plastics by 270 tonnes . Migros had fun converting these tonnes into elephant weight. So, 20,000 tonnes is 4,000 elephants. And the 270 tonnes less is 50 elephants. Time to make this elephantine reasoning, the spokesperson comes back with another example. -That’s the advantage of having your own industry.

That’s packaging… These are products packaged in Ecublens. We worked on packaging saying to ourselves: “We want to save plastic and allow customers to be able to recycle a large part of it.” Here there is a thin plastic film whose structure is supported by cardboard.

The customer will be able to peel off the plastic film and throw it in the trash. On the other hand, the majority is cardboard, which can be recycled. -Let’s go to the organic section, which is often discussed. -As we had to separate it from the non-organic,

We packaged it in plastic, to protect it, and because the customer does not want it to be mixed with the non-organic. Since the beginning of the year, we have started to unpack. We now have a certain number of fruits and vegetables with a label. -This one is packed. Why are some?

-An entire sector needs to transform. Fruits and vegetables are a direct partnership with producers. We are not going to impose a system on them. -The worst thing in terms of plastic is the take away. I especially wanted to see this with you. -Ah, there you go ! -Or that, you see?

Look at this one: you have the croutons in a plastic bag, the sauce in a plastic bag, the little fork… Everything is packaged separately and it’s a big package for a small salad. -You should know that we have reduced the packaging on this item by 50%. -Was it 50% heavier or bigger before?

-There was 50% more new plastic material. -So the same height, the same weight, but made with 50% recycled plastic. Good effort, but it’s still plastic: quickly bought, quickly consumed and thrown away. The customer knows: there are not 36 solutions. -The only solution is to remove it. We can’t do anything else.

Otherwise remove, remove, remove, remove. -Is it the consumer or the supermarket who must make an effort? -Both. If the consumer makes an effort, we can force the market. But we are obliged to follow a little of what is proposed. -What do you think about that ? -We could have something other than plastic.

Often, paper would suffice. A somewhat sturdy paper, perhaps. -Mini doses and Swiss… We went to Nestlé. They were asked why continue these plastic miniatures. -There are two dynamics. The first is practicality, demanded by consumers. “Portionable”, “takeable” products for consumption other than at home.

The second reason, that we see less of our European world, is access to quality food products at an affordable price. -In other words: the king client wanted it and therefore he is responsible. The consumer should not throw it away. -No, we say that when there is

A consumption of a product, the consumer chooses the product with his hand, a conscious decision, he consumes the product and then throws away the packaging or does something else. -This way of seeing is too simplistic, and Nestlé has a responsibility in the impact of these products in the life cycle.

It’s up to them to offer other products. -Greenpeace accuses Nestlé of being the 2nd largest plastic polluter after Coca. Nestlé counters that they took action with a goal: 100% recyclable or reusable packaging by 2025. Two billion francs were injected. -It is clear that this proliferation of packaging makes us think

About different management models. We are working on alternatives that make it possible to secure the offer to the consumer, but also avoid creating waste. -In 2019, Nestlé inaugurated its research institute where around fifty scientists worked on packaging. As they refused the presence of our cameras, Ms. Crémades presents creations to us.

-This bar is wrapped in paper. So here we come, to find the product design which is protected by paper. That’s one example, but there’s a lot going on. -Can I open it? -Yes. -It’s not plasticized packaging… -Ah yes, there is a bit of it. -The packaging is paper, there is a thin layer

To guarantee the integrity of the product. Because if it’s just pure paper, we don’t yet have a barrier thin enough to prevent air from penetrating and making the cereal bar go rancid. -The plastic is thinner, covered in paper, but it’s there. What do you say

To those who say that paper is not the solution? -Our paper supplies are papers from perennial forests. Forests planted for paper. We have a whole anti-deforestation program at Nestlé. We will not touch primary forests for packaging. -We see a lot of action from these companies. But most are illusions.

Switching from disposable plastic packaging to disposable paper packaging does not solve the problem. There is not enough sustainable cellulose to produce paper packaging. It will be necessary to cut down significant forests, which we need to protect the climate. -This would be a real false solution. -We know that globally we produce

350 million tonnes of plastic per year. Twenty-four times more than in 1964. In the coming years, it will double. Or even quadruple by 2050. If nothing is done, we will end up in a gigantic plastic crisis. -The problem with plastic is that it feels fantastic. From the 50s, we were addicted.

Even if you ask the right questions, it sure makes you emphatic. Archives -This plastic which is pursuing a superb industrial career. This omnipresent plastic, so easy to mold. Light. Flexible. Unbreakable. Miracle product of petrochemicals and macromolecules. Miracle packaging of the large sales outlets of our time. Smelly when burned, difficult to reuse,

Sometimes harmful. Pollutant. Is this famous bottle really above suspicion? What do you think of the plastic bottle? -It’s light, but it’s a disadvantage for destruction. -It doesn’t break when you transport it. But the downside is that it’s difficult to destroy. -We throw it away and it’s over! -It’s not heavy.

You can throw it in the trash, no problem. -Almost 50 years later, it’s not much better. In Switzerland, only 8% of plastics are recycled. All Swiss household waste ends up in incineration, as in this Geneva factory. The largest in French-speaking Switzerland. -The plant is capable of processing

250,000 tonnes of waste, all types of waste. Waste from households and businesses active in the canton. -How much does it cost to bring household waste per ton? -Around 270 francs per tonne. We are at the foot of the two ovens, which are identical. We saw the unloading of waste

In the storage phases, and we introduce our waste into the oven. The waste burns at a maximum temperature of 850 degrees and spends several hours in the oven. You don’t want anything unburnt when it comes out of the oven. -Especially plastic? -In plastic, there is nothing left at all.

-There is nothing left of the plastic, and it also provides electricity to 3% of the canton of Geneva, and heat for several neighborhoods. -There, we have a view of all of our two ovens. On the right and left are our boilers. We will recover the energy from combustion to transfer it to water,

And obtain steam at very high temperature. -At the end of the process, there are still fumes. -Good morning. -Throughout Switzerland, the law is strict. The air and water around the plant are monitored and analyzes entrusted to independent organizations. -We take samples from the soil, from certain plants… We have a

Measuring station which counts the atmospheric fallout in the surrounding area. And then we use other studies. -What do you say to those who say that incineration, for CO2, is a disaster? -Incineration is not a disaster since it is under control. If recycling channels are found and put in place,

It will be necessary to ensure that they are environmentally friendly and that they do not emit more CO2 than incineration today. It must be remembered that it is a local solution, which recovers energy and which, in addition, heats and supplies electricity to tens of thousands of people in Geneva.

-In these factories our garbage bags and industrial waste are burned. And that’s heavy. We return to Serbeco for whom the industrial sector is the real mission. They sort to recycle waste that still has value, including certain plastics. -We have cardboard and certain types of plastic behind me. Like the bogus pipes, films,

Which will be revalued in material form. After crushing, they will be transported and washed to be used again in industry. -This recycling was profitable in the past. -We are typically in a period where even on transparent plastics, a drop in prices means that we no longer have added value

In preparing batches for recovery. And unfortunately, it is plastics that become fuel. -In other words, it ends in fire. There is almost no point in recycling plastic anymore. -If we talk about transparent plastics, we have been able to sell up to several hundred francs per tonne. Today, it’s a few dozen francs,

If we can find a buyer. -Ten times cheaper. A masterful and brutal drop in price, but which can be explained. China imported more than 50% of the world’s plastic waste by cargo ship to recycle it and use the residue as fuel before stopping everything in 2018. A global shock. Since then, waste

Has been accumulating. The supply is so overwhelming that the entire market has collapsed. Producing recycled is becoming more expensive than producing new plastic. In Switzerland, the darling of recycling is PET. And it works well because in the price of the bottles, two cents are for recycling.

Nothing for PE bottles: laundry detergent, milk or shampoo. Recycling them is not profitable. Serbeco tried and gave up, and the option of getting rid of it in Asia is unthinkable for them. -If we want to balance our costs, we will have to charge three times the price it would cost

To eliminate this waste through incineration, which is the majority of the case. -The majority of bottles would be incinerated? However, department stores proudly announce that they recycle them. -We started, in 2013, to recover PE bottles. We were the first to do it. -It’s the bottles: everything that is not PET…

-Everything that is resealable. Traditionally, what we do with this plastic of not very good quality, it was used to make cables, pipes… We see a lot of it in the building: a gray, ugly plastic which is not necessarily very glamorous. -We, as we doubt everything, on principle, we imagined a scheme

To verify the sector of these bottles. To help us in this endeavor, we called on a private detective who, for obvious reasons, will remain anonymous. -Good morning. -Good morning. I brought you the two bottles. So the idea is to install the tracker inside so that we can follow them. If we crush

The bottle a little , it… -As long as it is not compressed, it should be fine. We stuck the device to the bottom of the bottle. -So it’s now resistant? -It’s durable. -A GPS will allow the bottles to be geolocated precisely. As soon as they move, they send a signal.

-We close it and you take it back. -Perfect. We take the two bottles to the Meyrin shopping center. Geolocation works. First signal at 11:46 a.m. for the Migros bottle. And at 11:50 a.m. for the Coop bottle. The only French-speaking factory that handles bottling is RC-Plast.

These are laundry detergent containers. -Yes, and bottles of milk which deserve to be valued again. -These bottles are the fruit of the collection efforts of French-speaking people. The factory was born in 2016. At its head, Xavier Prudhomme. -To save space, we put it in a bale.

We squeeze it and suddenly, in a single ball, we have about 300 to 400 kilos. We save space and we will be able to sort it later. -Here, everything is state-of-the-art. Especially this optical sorting machine separating polymers by light. She spots the different kinds of plastic and blows them into different crates, quickly.

How many plastic bottles do you receive? -A few hundred tonnes per year. -It’s really nothing. -No. -It’s really not much. -The potential is around 15,000 t per year. -15,000 tonnes of potential! -The difference between these figures… There are several reasons. First, RC-Plast is a recent factory. In some cases, there is the price.

Recycling has a fair price. Finally, there is the fact of setting up this collection with a municipality or large-scale distribution. It’s work, it’s effort and it can be a hindrance to development. -Large distribution is also going elsewhere, otherwise there would be more. -Yes indeed. -So the rest goes where?

-The first channel for plastic is incineration. -Including bottling? -Yes. -The second sector is the cement factories which need alternative fuel. And the third is material recovery, the one that we propose. Some bottles end up with a partner who will manufacture granules and which will be used to remanufacture PE pipes.

It really is a virtuous circle of recycling where plastic becomes plastic again. -So normally, we should value these bottles, but we don’t do that since you only have a few hundred. And you are the only ones to offer this in French-speaking Switzerland.

-But we can think that a part is exported, it is possible. -It surprises you ? U.S. too. Our little bottle tracking experiment could turn out to be more interesting than expected. The GPS in the Coop bottle turned off, the battery died. But in the meantime, we were able to follow its route

To a Coop warehouse in the canton of Vaud. As Coop refused to communicate, we cannot tell you where the bottle will end up. For Migros, the bottle left Meyrin to land at the Migros-Carouge (GE) depot. There we find JB.Pouget, director of Migros Geneva, who explains the rest.

-The dumpster is here, we’re going to have some bottles. It comes from stores in a bag. The operator undoes the bag and only empties the bottled products. That’s already fifteen days of collection. There are errors, there will be a 2nd sorting. When it goes to our operator SRS Global Services,

I am convinced that they do a pre-sorting and when it arrives at Grandson, it’s all sorting. What comes out of Grandson is perfect. -Indeed, our bottle went to the company SRS Global Services, an intermediary partner of Migros, but for weeks, it has not moved. Contact RC-Plast, in Grandson.

-We have no longer received bottles from Migros since March 2019. -Did you receive them before? -Yes, the equivalent of two or three trucks per year, or between 40 to 40 tonnes of bottles per year. -We check with Migros. Is this specified in the contract? -Yes. We absolutely want SRS Global Services

To have the outlet of Grandson, our ancestral service provider. -Obviously, we are going to see SRS Global Services. Where do you send the bottles? -RC-Plast. -How come since March 2019 they have received nothing at all? -We were in the process of commissioning the tool. So there are other tonnages which have been baled

And which have gone to other valorization sites. -You did not understand ? We neither. We learn that they have entrusted the bottles to another company. We need to know who it is to verify. -Alright. -Who is it ? -The question is delicate, the communications manager takes over.

-We’ll give you a list of names. -If it turns out that the final destination is not Grandson, will you take action? -So, for now, I have to verify what you say. I am convinced that our service provider respects our commitment, and their commitment. -Are you convinced? -I am convinced.

-The interview takes place under close surveillance by the spokespersons. Conclusion: Migros Geneva has decided to give its partner company a second chance. According to our investigation, the bottles between March and December 2019, instead of being processed in Switzerland, were exported to Germany and France.

We are talking about 40 to 50 tonnes, a small volume, but part of the impressive figure of 90,000 tonnes of plastic waste exported each year by Swiss companies. We wanted to know who or what, but impossible. Even our team of data journalists couldn’t go any further, because it’s private business.

The recipient countries are mainly our European neighbors. German customs do not announce the same figures as Switzerland. Again, no one could explain it to us. Faced with this opacity, we turned to the Environment Office. Why do we need to export these 90,000 tonnes? Why not treat them in Switzerland?

-In Switzerland, the market is small. Even though we produce a lot of waste. To recycle, two prerequisites must be met. You have to have a quantity that you can recycle and for which a market exists. You have to find someone who wants to buy the product. You have to have a financing system.

Disposing of waste costs something. For a business to be profitable, these factors must be met. -When plastic waste is not mixed with other waste, it crosses the border freely. The driver just needs to have the correct documents. Can we have traceability of what crosses the border? -Traceability is difficult.

When there is no need for authorization, the checks are random. Random checks do take place at the borders, but we cannot check every commodity. -A plastic waste that crosses borders and is handled by a German factory, is what will be the waste that comes out still considered Swiss waste?

-With export, it becomes German waste. If it is a legal export, it is German waste. If it is an illegal export, then it remains waste that comes from Switzerland. And here we must return. The State will intervene and bring this waste back to Switzerland or will take charge of it to eliminate it.

-So the residue of Swiss plastic waste, legally exported to Germany, becomes German. However, Germany massively exports plastic waste to South-East Asia, particularly Indonesia. It’s crazy, but shipping them there costs less than disposing of them here. This is what all developed countries do. We would have liked to enjoy

The beaches of Bali, instead, here we are in the industrial port of Surabaya, the most important port in Indonesia. -Is this where the boats arrive? -Yes. -Are there a lot of cargo ships from abroad? -There are many from abroad. -Do you have any from Germany and France? -Yes, both. -In Indonesia, import

Plastic waste is prohibited, but not waste paper. Four years ago, the government even made the entry of waste paper easier by eliminating systematic checks. The smuggling of plastic waste hidden in waste paper has exploded. Exporters to your country know this is prohibited. Why are they trying?

-Because in Indonesia, some people take advantage of it. You see what I mean. Profits. -What happens to the person caught with illegal plastic waste? -He or she will be punished with a fine or prison. -What’s happening with the container? -It is re-exported to the country of origin.

For example, Germany, the United States and Australia have seen containers re-exported. -Have you recently had containers that you had to send back to France or Germany? -Yes. -Who will pay for this? -The importer. The person or company that brought him to Indonesia, they will pay. A rooster crows

A man spells out different countries in English -Prigi is a whistleblower. He is one of the pioneers in his country to have denounced the importation of plastic waste from all over the world. They state the country written on plastic waste – Digging through waste is a real geography lesson.

They try to pronounce the word “Perrier” Biologist by training, Prigi created the NGO Ecoton twenty years ago to denounce the harmful effects of plastic on the environment. His fight: accumulate evidence on plastic waste trafficking. A few months ago, he bought a truck of plastic waste taken from waste paper containers.

He dumped it in his garden. -We bought them at the waste paper factory. In East Java, we have 22 paper mills. They use waste paper. -Last year, he filmed the bales of imported waste paper stored in factories. The ones that are white, instead of being brown, are stuffed with plastic.

-The paper that arrives in East Java is more than 40% contaminated with plastic. Sometimes we even find that. -Oh ! -Layers. Diapers, underwear, adult diapers. -Ecoton was able to film the paper mill process using a hidden camera. Indonesians roughly separate the paper. They are then loaded onto trucks and taken to surrounding villages.

Especially for the residents of Bangun, it has become quite a business. Sorting pays more than growing rice. They did not appreciate that Prigi showed their village drowned in plastic and suffocated by the fumes of burned residues. -If you want to recycle it, you have to remove this one and that one.

-Is that what people do here? -Yes, to recycle, they separate into three parts. One, two and three. -This one. -We can sell it for two euros for a kilo. -Which is a good price. -Yes, for the people here. The quality of the plastic is better than here. …

-We decide to go there, to Bangun, to see for ourselves if the situation has changed. While trying to find the sorting places without being noticed, we come across a villager who understands what we are doing there. -Are you interested in the paper factory? You have to go there, see for yourself!

As a resident here, I can’t do anything. Even parliamentarians, parliamentarians from Jakarta, have come and they can do nothing. Even the governor came… It’s no use. -Actually, his coffee is stuck at the paper factory. He takes us to see. Over the wall you can see the bales of old paper

From which the villagers of Bangun remove the plastic. Like everyone else, our man also has a pile of trash. They are all imported. -Italy. Maybe Denmark… No, NL, it’s Holland. -We buy waste from this factory. They cost between 150,000 and 200,000 rupees per truck. Then, if I do the math, we can get

Between 700,000 and 800,000 per truck. Big trucks. -It makes a lot of money. But only 20% of waste is recyclable. Everything else is burned. Was all this before or is it still happening today in Bangun? -Always. If you want to check it out, go ahead! I do not lie.

If you want to go there, go with my brother. -Obviously, we jump at the opportunity. The brother is not reassured: there is a risk of being attacked. We are forbidden to stop. -Hey! Stop, filming is forbidden! -People here are like that, we taught them to be like that.

It was the mafia who told them to do it like that. This is why the media no longer dare to come here. Keep driving, don’t stop. It’s straight ahead. The scheme is very clever. The factory throws away its waste, it gives it to the village chief, and he receives money.

He gives the waste to the population who will sell it. Nobody thinks about the effects on the environment. -Piles of plastic contaminate the earth and the fumes from residues burned in the open air are extremely toxic. -This is the primary school, where the little children are. Right there, they burn the trash.

How many meters are there between the two? -All this waste arrives here because it costs less for us, developed countries. But it is they, in Indonesia, who pay the ecological and health price. The Ministry of Environment in Jakarta was in no hurry to receive us. We had to insist for a long time.

At the last moment, Mr. Tahar was appointed to answer us. -We are strict on this issue. It is the president who personally chairs the meetings of the cabinet of ministers. He instructs them to be firm in finding solutions to this problem. Moreover, counting until last December, we returned

883 containers to their country of origin. -Mr. Tahar sent us this video so that we can see the government’s action. During this surprise inspection at the port of Jakarta, 70 containers full of plastic were seized. -We investigated several companies. -Are they punished? -Yes. -How many were punished? -Um… Last year, as the containers

Were still at customs, we only sent them back to the countries of origin, namely the United States, Europe, or Australia. -But no punishment? Only the referral? -Implementation of the law is still underway. Because for implementation, we need time. -In the meantime, it continues. We saw it in Bangun, the waste village,

We also saw it in Tropodo, a neighboring town, visible with this smoke. They all produce tofu and feed their ovens with residues from imported plastics. … -At the end of November 2019, all tofu manufacturers announced that they were going to change fuel. That they were going to move from plastic waste

To the alternative. Namely wood chips or pallets, or even gas, produced by the local factory. I think they have already changed a lot. -Obviously not in this factory we were able to enter. Plastic is an efficient and cheap fuel. It reduces the cost of producing tofu by 20%.

In talking with villagers and NGOs, we are told that this continues. -We’ll check. -It’s a question of money. This is about greed. Some people don’t want their business to be compromised. I think it’s very dangerous because the government is silent. They are accomplices. Since it’s illegal, the government could put

The importers in jail. We have a lot of evidence, but not a single importer has gone to prison because they acted illegally. -The impact of plastic waste pollution on air and water is massive. The region’s river is very affected, which serves as drinking water for five million people.

-Last year we analyzed the fish. We caught a hundred fish and 80% are contaminated with microplastics. I live near the river. I don’t want my daughters, my grandchildren, not to be able to play in this river. We want to provide assurance that this river is clean so that people can use

This natural resource. -I would like to add that this waste problem is not only the problem of importing countries, but it concerns countries all over the world. Because the source comes from developed countries. -Southeast countries are trying to return hundreds of containers of illegal plastic waste. -We want to encourage developed countries

To stop sending their waste to developing countries. -As long as business is profitable, without real sanctions, our plastic waste will flow to the countries of the South-East. Worse, and Greenpeace has proven it, certain containers supposed to be re-exported were diverted to India

Where there is already the largest mountain of waste in the world. Repatriating waste is expensive, and no one wants it or wants to pay for it. The cargo ship route passes through the 7th continent. This famous continent of plastic, and suddenly,

We have a terrible doubt, that no one has been able to take away from us. What if it all ended here, on the open sea?