Groups Say Rejected Shipments Moved to Other Countries

Contaminated bales of recycled paper stonewalled at Indonesian ports were not returned to the U.S. as promised, according to environmental organizations.

The Basel Action Network (BAN), a Seattle-based exports watchdog group that generally focuses on electronic waste, on Oct. 28 released an investigation into U.S. shipments of recyclables to Asia. 

The group, working with Indonesian environmental organization Nexus3, tracked containers of mixed paper that were shipped from the U.S. to Indonesia and were rejected because they also contained plastics and other materials.

Indonesian officials over the summer asserted the containers would be returned to their countries of origin, and the government also issued a press release last month describing containers being returned after rejection.

But after acquiring and tracking the container numbers, BAN and Nexus3 found that out of a selection of 58 containers that were rejected and said to be returned to the U.S., only about one-fifth of them were returned in that fashion. The others were instead shipped to other countries both in Southeast Asia and other regions. The container numbers were provided to BAN and Nexus3 by “a reliable source,” according to the report.

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