The illegally-imported plastic waste is discovered in 83 containers in Sihanoukville port, 230km to the southwest of Phnom Penh, on July 16. (Photo: cambodiadaily.com)

ChungyuenPlastic Manufacture Co., Ltd, the importer of the plastic waste, shipped back14 containers on August 20 and the remaining 69 containers were returned on September15, the GDCE said in a press release.

The companyhas fulfilled all the conditions placed on it by the authorities, includingpaying a fine of 1.03 billion KHR (254,000 USD) for importing those plasticwaste.

The waste wasdiscovered in 83 containers in Sihanoukville port, 230km to the southwest ofPhnom Penh, on July 16, ofwhich 70 were from the US and the rest from Canada.

The containerswere imported from the US and Canada over 17 separate occasions between lastSeptember and January.

The casecaused outrage among local officials.

China’s ban onplastic waste imports from last year has thrown global recycling sector intocrisis, forcing developed countries to find new places to send waste. As aresult, a huge amount of waste has been sent to Southeast Asian ports.

Cambodia isthe most recent country to refuse waste imports. In July, Indonesia returneddozens of containers full of waste to France and other developed countries. InMay, Malaysia also shipped 450 tonnes of imported plastic waste back to itssource.

Each year,about 300 million tonnes of plastic waste is released to the environment, mostof which is not recycled but buried or thrown into the ocean./.VNA