Article: https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/south-asia/sri-lanka-returns-illegal-containers-of-waste-including-body-parts-to-britain-after
Analysis
The Democratic Socalist Republic of Sri Lanka began shipping hazardous waste containers including human body parts back to Britain after a two year court battle. Recently, several Asian countries that receive a profit from waste have been pushing back against wealthier nations. Thus, we have seen many and have been turning back shipments of garbage.
For Sri Lanka specifically, their Court of Appeals ordered the return of bio-waste from hospitals and plastic waste because these imports violated local and international shipping regulations. The Centre for Environmental Justice (CEJ) had petitioned courts to get the illegal imports rejected. Although Customs didn’t reveal the type of waste officials stated, it included rags, bandages, and body parts.
Sri Lanka’s Customs insists that all containers had been received into the country in violation of international law governing the ship of hazardous waste and plastics. Besides Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia also returned hundreds of containers back to their countries of origin.
This is important because it represents the criticism wealthy nations who ship their waste to developing countries are receiving. Yet, this can still be an example of reciprocity since both are benefitting enough to continue to support their relationship. The benefit for wealthy nations is it is cheap, helps meet their recycling requirements, and reduces domestic waste buildup. For developing countries, they make a profit and gain a source of income. If this relationship stops being mutually beneficial as contaminated plastic and trash gets mixed in with the recycling, anger is likely to grow in Sri Lanka possibly straining their relationship. This also can be applied to the other countries who are returning shipments as well.
A general realist perspective would say this isn’t surprising. They may theorize that it was in the self-interest of the British to pawn off their waste on developing countries with less power. Considering this deeply, how likely is it the British ‘accidentally’ sent illegal medical waste and plastic. The reason this flies under the radar is Britain has more power than Sri Lanka and this is unlikely to change because of their long term elements of power. This power dynamic could shift, but it is unlikely for this to happen anytime soon.