Latin America urges US to reduce plastic waste export
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Environmental organizations in Latin American call on the US, which is the world’s largest plastic waste exporter, to decline its waste exports.
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US companies are investing in the Latin American factories and recycling plants in order to process their exports.
Latin American environmental organizations have urged the US to limit its plastic waste exports to the region, following a published report that showed that the US had increased exports in 2020, The Guardian reported.
According to the newspaper, the US is the world’s largest plastic waste exporter.
On the top of the list for US plastic wastes importers is Mexico, which imported 32,650 tons of plastic waste between January and August 2020, the Last Beach Cleanup, an environmental advocacy group based in California, mentioned.
Coming in second is El Salvador that imported 4,054 tons, while Ecuador scored third for importing 3,665 tons.
A report published by the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (Gaia) estimated that the plastic waste sector in Latin American will witness more growth, as US companies continur to invest in the region's factories and recycling plants in order to process their exports, The Guardian said.
Read more: 8 Million Tons of Pandemic Plastic Waste
Environmental colonialism
The newspaper quoted Fernanda Solíz, the Health Area Director at the Simón Bolívar University in Ecuador, as saying that the booming US plastic waste exports is a form of environmental colonialism.
“The cross-border plastic waste trade is perhaps one of the most nefarious expressions of the commercialization of common goods and the colonial occupation of territories of the geopolitical south to turn them into sacrifice zones," Soliz highlighted.
Soliz expressed that “Latin America and the Caribbean are not the backyards of the United States.”
“We are sovereign territories, and we demand the respect of the rights of nature and our peoples," she added.
Most of the world’s countries agreed in May 2019 to reduce transporting plastic waste from global north countries to the poor global south in accordance with the plastics amendment to the Basel Convention.
The Agreement forbids exporting plastic waste from private companies in the US without the local government's permission.
However, the US refused to sign the agreement and is accused of exporting its plastic waste to Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America, according to The Guardian.
