VERMONT: A US state official has lent his support for Malaysia’s decision to ship imported wastes back to their countries of origin.
“It’s only the right thing to do since it is not your waste in the first place,” said Jared Blumenfeld, the Secretary for Environmental Protection in California.
He also sees this as an opportunity for the United States to “hit the reset button” on how to address waste management issues and “to do the right thing in terms of sustainability”.
Blumenfeld was speaking at the launching of the first-of-its-kind “reporters convening on plastic pollution” forum organised by Judith Enck, a visiting professor at the Bennington College, here. Enck is the founder of the “Beyond Plastics” movement.
Blumenfeld, a former director of the Department of Environment in San Francisco, has been credited with helping steer California to become one of the most sustainable states in the United States.
He and then San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom worked effectively to turn the city into the most sustainable metropolis in the country by developing a municipal environmental code that included mandatory recycling and composting. Newsom is now the governor of California.
San Francisco is one of three US cities to ban styrofoam and plastic bags and this has helped the city reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20%.
Blumenfeld said the US now had the capacity to treat wastes more effectively instead of shipping it to other countries.
“The zero waste objective for the world is attainable, as shown by California,” he said.
The average recycling rate in San Francisco is 87%, and in the rest of California, it is 40%, which is higher than other US states.
Blumenfeld said Malaysia could aim for similar standards.
“Those shipping wastes to other countries should understand that the circular economy (a system that minimises waste) works,” he said.
He said the world was trapped in its form of domestic consumption economy that enticed people to spend and use environmentally unfriendly packaging and products to sustain such spending, and that there was a need to emphasise on the 3Rs - reduce, reuse and recycle - strategy.
He added that the US could create at least 10,000 jobs if it took back all the exported wastes for recycling, composting or marketing greenery.
