Malaysia will ban the import of plastic waste from the United States from Tuesday as the US failed to comply with the Basel Convention on International Waste Transfer in a move that could have major consequences for California.

Malaysia emerged as a major destination for US waste after China banned the import of US waste in 2018. California was shipped to shipping containers of over £864 in 2024 or to Malaysia in 2024. It was second among US states after Georgia.

under Malaysian waste guidelines announced last monththe country no longer accepts plastic waste and dangerous waste from countries that have not ratified the Basel Convention, an international treaty designed to reduce international movements of dangerous and other waste. The United States is one of only a handful of countries, including Fiji and Haiti, and has not signed an agreement.

Malaysia will continue to accept plastic waste from Basel signatories. However, exports from these countries will be subject to pre-inspection in the country of origin, according to the new guidelines.

Steve Won, CEO of Gospel, a global plastic recycling company based in Hong Kong, suggests that it has already affected the ports of transport.

“There is a accumulated scrap inventory at ports and yards and there is no clear guidance on enforcement discretion or timeline for Malaysia’s new system. The market for imported plastic waste is effectively frozen.”

Much of California’s plastic waste is sent overseas. A spokesman for Port in Los Angeles said he was unaware of the impending ban. Long Beach Port officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A spokesman for the Port of Auckland said the facility “is not expected to have any impact from this change as it has not seen historically a large amount of this product.”

According to Wong’s email, the coming ban is significantly destroying garbage export routes, especially with grocery bags, Trash Can Liner and Food Lap.

“The Malaysian scrap plastics market has been virtually suspended amid widespread uncertainty ahead of the new management regime that tightens import restrictions and takes effect on July 1, 2025,” Wong wrote in an email. “Recyclers, traders and suppliers all have minimized or reported none of the movement of plastic waste.”

Seattle-based Basel Action Network’s Jim Packet supported Malaysia’s decision.

“Recycling” is doing more harm than good because only a small portion of exports are recycled,” says Puckett, the group’s founder and chief of strategic direction. “Plastics that cannot be recycled are often dangerous or contain microplastics, and are generally discarded, burned or released into waterways. We are relieved that the export of plastic waste for recycling is a complete fake, and that the US contribution to this plastic waste shell game is increasingly prohibited.”

According to a California waste agentCalleciku, province exported 11.3 million tons of recyclable materials overseas in 2022 to locations such as Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Taiwan, Korea, Mexico, Canada and more.

That number includes 100 million pounds of scrap plastic. The number of Basel Action Networks shows that over £10 million has been sent to Malaysia, but CalRecycle’s 2022 report did not break down plastic exports to individual countries.

A spokesman for Calrecycle said California is “working to reduce plastic pollution in our state and around the world,” and said scrap plastic exports have declined significantly over the past decade.

Maria West, the agency’s communications director, said in 2018 that California exported about 421,000 tonnes, or 842 million pounds of plastic scrap to Malaysia. She said the number fell 98% in 2024 to 8,000 tonnes, or about £16 million.

Several major California waste companies, including Athens Services and Recology, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Critics of California’s waste system say a 1989 state law requiring cities and jurisdictions to divert waste from landfills led to an increase in exports of waste overseas.

Until 2018, China was the leading importer of plastic waste in the United States. However, after China implemented the state’s sword policy that banned most plastic waste imports, the state began sending waste elsewhere.

Some of the plastics are recycled in these countries, Many of them are located in incineration or landfills, where they suffocate the river and flow into the ocean.

Waste advocates such as the Basel Action Network and participants in the Basel Convention are working to reduce the international movement of contaminated, non-recyclable plastics from economically favorable countries such as the United States.

Jan Dell, president of LastBeachCleanup, a Laguna Beach-based anti-plastic waste organization, praised Malaysia’s decision.

“We are asking cities, waste companies, brokers and shipping companies to respect Malaysia’s sovereignty law and to stop shipping all plastic waste,” she wrote in an email. Plastic waste should not be repeated in other poor countries. ”

In 2022, Gavin Newsom Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 54, a groundbreaking plastics law designed to establish a circular economy of single-use plastic products and packaging. The law requires product manufacturers to prove that their products are recycled or composted in a way that addresses the export of plastic waste and reduces environmental pollution and minimizes the impact on the health of those living nearby the products.

Calrecycle is currently working to draft regulations that will enable the law to be enforced, but West, an agency spokesperson, said the law “must go to a responsible final market and ensure that materials are actually recycled rather than being wasted in the landfill or the environment.”