In order to effectively crack down on illegal foreign garbage factories, Malaysian Minister of Energy, Technology, Science, Climate Change and Environment Yang Meiying has targeted the target to ban 100 domestic illegal foreign garbage factories in the first quarter of 2019.

At present, the authorities have detected 97 illegal plastic and plastic factories in Malaysia, including 61 in Selangor, which is the most illegal garbage factory in the country. In addition, there are 6 in Johor, 10 in Kedah and Negeri Sembilan, 2 in Penang, 1 in Kelantan and 7 in Sui.

These 97 illegal garbage factories are only conservative figures. I believe that there are still many illegal foreign garbage factories hidden in places we don't know. In order to combat this illegal business, the government has frozen the import permit in July last year and has not issued it yet. After we reach our goal, we will assess whether we will re-issue the import permit.

The Environment Bureau has started to ban it from Selangor, and then it will launch a crackdown in Kedah today, and then expand to all parts of the country. At present, 61 illegal foreign garbage factories in Selangor have been banned, and the number of plastics confiscated is over 100 tons. The number is very alarming.

After the local government confiscates the relevant plastics, it can be auctioned to a legal plastics factory, or destroyed, to avoid the transfer of positions and continue illegal business. In the illegal garbage factory that has been seized, the authorities will also ensure that the power is cut off and the operation of the factory is stopped to prevent the operators from “re-doing the old business”.

In addition to the ban on illegal foreign garbage factories, the environmental bureau will not hesitate to take action against the environmentally-friendly plastics factory if it finds contradictory environmental regulations, including revoking licenses, fines or bringing the operators to court.

Yang Meiying said: "I hope that the people of the whole country can play the eyes of the government. If they find that there is an illegal foreign garbage factory, they must inform the people's representative, so that they can ask the local government to crack down and prevent the illegal foreign garbage factory from continuing to operate. Advise all plastic factories. Industry players, whether local or foreign, should not break the law, otherwise they will be dealt with and will never compromise."