Malaysia’s Mahathir tells rich nations to take back their plastic garbage

TOKYO — It’s grossly unfair for rich countries to send their plastic waste to poor countries that are already struggling to cope with their own waste problems, and the practice needs to stop, Malaysia’s Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said Thursday.

His comments, made on a visit to Tokyo, came after Malaysia announced this week it was sending back more than 3,000 tons of nonrecyclable plastic waste to countries such as the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia and Japan that had apparently been smuggled into the country.

Malaysia’s government says it has become a dumping ground for rich nations after China banned the import of plastic waste last year.

China’s decision has sparked a crisis in the global waste disposal industry because neither the richer nations nor poorer ones have the capacity to process all the waste they produce.