LYON, France – Thousands of suspects, companies and criminal networks engaged in maritime pollution have been detected and investigated in a global INTERPOL-led operation.

New EU green finance rules could choke off money to build new waste incinerators — upsetting the industry and worrying countries that had been planning on burning garbage to generate energy.

In the trash-strewn slums of Sintesti, less than 10 miles from Romania’s capital, Mihai Bratu scrapes a dangerous living for his Roma family amid the foul reek of burning plastic that cloys the air day and night.

Despite having the second-lowest waste-recycling rates in the European Union, Romania has become overflowing with waste and garbage - most of it brought in illegally from abroad.

Since 2019 Malaysia, a relatively small nation in Southeast Asia, has sent 267 containers of plastic waste back to their countries of origin. It was reported last week that they are in the process of sending back 81 more containers. The trash was returned to the United States, amongst a number of other first world countries, including France, the U.K, Canada, Singapore and Spain.

Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. According to The National Museum of American History, this popular slogan, with its iconic three arrows forming a triangle, embodied a national call to action to save the environment in the 1970s. In that same decade, the first Earth Day happened, the EPA was formed and Congress passed the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, encouraging recycling and conservation of resources, Enviro Inc. reported.

Plastic consumption has exploded over the years. This has caused plastic waste production worldwide to steadily increased by 10 million metric tons every year in the last 10 years, to reach almost 360 million metric tons in 2018.

Vilifying legal plastic recyclers in the country along with illegal operators will hurt legitimate businesses and undermine environmental conservation efforts here, said two plastics associations.

In just two short years, the world has awoken to the hidden, harsh realities of the plastic waste trade that is called “recycling.” More than 100 investigations and reports have shown serious environmental and social harms in receiving countries. In the recent “Plastic Wars,” FRONTLINE and NPR showed plastic waste from the United States (U.S.) dumped and burned in Indonesian communities in 2019.

A high-profile scrap plastic shipment from the U.S. to Malaysia was accepted after the importing country’s government said it contained clean, sorted material. The situation demonstrates the complexities in interpreting new plastic shipping regulations.

Malaysia said on Tuesday it had sent 267 containers of illegal plastic waste back to their countries of origin since 2019, and was in the process of returning 81 more.

At a time when 600 containers of hazardous and toxic waste destined for Tunisia have been blocked by the Italian customs authorities, civil society activists from the port city of Sousse gathered on Thursday, to rally in front of the Italian Embassy in Tunis.

About 100 containers of plastic waste are being held at the North Butterworth Container Terminal (NBCT), awaiting Customs and port clearance to be sent to their country of origin.

The materials arrive in containers in Brazil and include from paper shavings to used hospital material, human waste and surgical gloves.

Malaysia has allowed entry of a container of plastic waste shipped from the United States, reversing previous opposition after finding it held only clean, recyclable material, and did not violate a new United Nations treaty banning trade in contaminated plastics.

Developed countries like the United States should take responsibility for their own waste and recycle them domestically rather than export them, Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) said.

Dozens of Tunisian activists protested in the port city of Sousse on Sunday to demand the return of nearly 300 containers of household waste illegally imported from Italy.

Governments are beginning to react to recent warnings issued by the Basel Action Network (BAN) of likely illegal exports of plastic waste from the US.