A HONG Kong-based company whose container was detained by Malaysian authorities in February this year has been convicted by a Hong Kong court for violating the waste disposal ordinance.

Department of Environment director-general Wan Abdul Latiff Wan Jaffar, in a statement today, said Union Fortune Limited was charged in the Fanling magistrate’s court on September 14 and fined HK$13,000 (about RM7,000) for violating the ordinance.

Latiff said a container was detained in Malaysia on February 21 by the  Malaysian customs department as a result of cooperation between the two countries’ enforcement agencies on illegal transboundary movement activities.

The container was found to be carrying scheduled electrical and electronic waste (e-waste), namely printed circuit boards (PCB) which is categorised as scheduled waste in the Environmental Quality (Scheduled Wastes) Regulations 2005.

The importation of the PCB was made without obtaining approval from the Malaysian Basel Convention Authority and classified as illegal.

According to the Basel Convention on The Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, the exporting country must submit a notification to the importing country and obtain prior written permission from the importing country before any transboundary movement activity is carried out.

Following the detention, Latiff said a notice was issued to the importing company and the container was ordered to be sent back to its place of origin.

The container was sent back on April 8 and arrived in Hong Kong on May 6.

Latiff said the so far, 151 containers carrying illegal scheduled wastes with 67 of them had been sent sent back to their countries of origin. – Bernama, September 20, 2021.