Malaysia has discovered 110 containers of hazardous heavy metals from Romania and bound for Indonesia that had illegally entered the country and were abandoned last month.

Malaysia discovers 110 containers of hazardous heavy metals from Romania (Photo: thejakartapost)

Malaysian state media Bernama quoted Environment and Water Minister Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man as saying that 1,864 tonnes of electric arc furnace dust (EAFD) – a by-product of steel production that contains heavy metals like zinc, lead and cadmium – were found abandoned at the Tanjung Pelepas port in the southern state of Johor.

The discovery of the EAFD is the biggest finding of its kind in Malaysian history, he said.

The EAFD, classified as a toxic waste under the Basel Convention, was listed as concentrated zinc in declaration forms.

The Department of Environment, as the Basel Convention authority of Malaysia, has not granted approval for or received notifications from the waste exporter to transit in Malaysia, the minister said.

In recent years, Malaysia has become a major destination for plastic waste containers from around the world, after China issued a ban on the import of this waste in 2018. The Malaysian government is negotiating with several countries to return hundreds of containers of rubbish illegally imported into the country to their place of origin.

Source: VNA