Foreign waste blamed for poisons in food

Analysis of eggs reveals high levels of hazardous chemicals toxic to humans

Foreign plastic waste dumped in Indonesia is contaminating the country's food chain, according to an analysis by the International Pollutants Elimination Network, or IPEN.

Indonesia is one of several Southeast Asian nations to have experienced a large increase in garbage imports since China stopped accepting shipments of plastic waste in January 2018 on environmental grounds.

IPEN conducted analysis of free-range chicken eggs collected at two sites in Indonesia where imported plastic waste is dumped and used for fuel or burned to reduce volume.

Samples revealed that the eggs contained "significant levels of very hazardous chemicals" including dioxins, which are a group of chemical compounds that are toxic to humans.

"The second-highest level of dioxins in eggs from Asia ever measured was found in samples collected near a tofu factory in Tropodo that burns plastic wastes for fuel," the IPEN said in its report.

Dioxins have been linked to reproductive and developmental problems and to conditions affecting the immune system.

The highest levels of dioxin ever recorded in eggs in Asia was in Bien Hoa, Vietnam, in 2012, near a former United States Army base where there were at least four major chemical weapon spills during the 1970s. IPEN said the dioxin levels in the Tropodo eggs were only marginally lower than those from Bien Hoa.

An adult eating just one egg from a free-range chicken foraging in the vicinity of the tofu factory in Tropodo would exceed the European Food Safety Authority, or EFSA, tolerable daily intake for chlorinated dioxins by 70-fold, according to IPEN.

Since the China ban, developed nations including the United Kingdom have been criticized for redirecting plastic waste exports to Southeast Asian nations that do not have the capacity to recycle all shipments.

Last year, Indonesia received 320,000 tons of plastic waste, up from the 128,000 tons it handled in 2017, according to the nation's trade ministry.

Between January and July last year, Malaysia received 456,000 tons of plastic waste from overseas, compared with 316,600 tons for all of 2017, according to government trade data. Both the UK and the US doubled plastic waste exports to Malaysia during this period.

The UK government is currently carrying out a waste and resource consultation, and is considering changing producer responsibility regulations, in order to encourage more frugal packaging practices and to increase investment in domestic recycling.

Currently, businesses that produce plastic packaging are required to cover 10 percent of recycling costs, with the taxpayer and local authorities paying the rest. The London-based Environmental Investigation Agency, or EIA, is calling for businesses to take responsibility for the entire cost.

"We are hoping that, through extended producer responsibility, the full cost associated with dealing with packaging products is covered by the producers, and as a result there will be more money available for investment recycling facilities in the UK," said Juliet Phillips, an ocean campaigner at the EIA.

In its submissions to the government during the waste and resource consultation, the EIA recommended that the UK eventually halt plastic waste exportation completely.

"We made the case that we should be looking to phase exports out as we develop more capacity domestically," said Phillips. "But, until that happens, there needs to be a real focus on ensuring environmental and social standards are being met when we are exporting waste, because it's unacceptable for these countries to have to deal with the brunt of it."