In August 2025, Malaysian campaigner Wong Pui Yi stood outside the UN headquarters in Geneva and made an appeal to Global North nations: “Stop treating the Global South as the rubbish bin for plastic waste you cannot handle.”
During that meeting, representatives from 184 countries failed to reach an agreement on a treaty to end plastic pollution. But the need for one has not gone away, particularl...
The global trade of plastic waste, which emerged in the 1980s as a means for countries with high recycling costs to send waste to countries where recycling is cheaper, has been criticized as "waste colonialism." This trade enables high-consumption lifestyles in the Global North while causing environmental and health harms in Southeast Asia. Efforts to address this issue through legislation and bans on waste imports have faced challenges due to potential circumvention by authorities with vested i...