NAKURU, KENYA - 2025/06/04: Informal waste workers carry materials to recycle at Gioto dumpsite Waste pickers play a vital role in supporting the circular economy by recovering mismanaged plastic waste and helping reduce pollution. This year's World Environment Day theme is "Beat Plastic Pollution", a call to raise global awareness about the harmful impact of plastic waste on the environment. (Photo by James Wakibia/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Los Angeles, California – California’s reliance on shipping plastic waste overseas is facing a hard reckoning. Starting July 1, Malaysia will officially ban imports of U.S. plastic waste, citing America’s refusal to ratify the Basel Convention—an international treaty designed to regulate global waste shipments. The move, driven by mounting frustration with the environmental toll of imported plastics, is already sending shockwaves through California’s waste export system.
The United States never signed the Basel Convention. And Malaysia—after years of serving as a convenient destination for U.S. plastics following China’s 2018 import ban—has decided it will no longer shoulder the burden. New guidelines prohibit plastic waste imports from non-signatories, including the U.S., Haiti, and Fiji, unless the waste is pre-inspected and certified under a new control regime.
California, which shipped over 10 million pounds of plastic to Malaysia in 2024 alone—more than any state except Georgia—may be particularly impacted. Much of this material includes film plastics like grocery bags, food wrap, and can liners, which are notoriously difficult to recycle. With ports already seeing a buildup of unsellable waste, some experts say the market has ground to a halt.
“The scrap plastics market in Malaysia has come to a virtual standstill,” Steve Wong, head of global plastics recycler Fukutomi, wrote in an email shared with industry insiders. With containers piling up and confusion over enforcement, traders and waste processors have few options—and even fewer end markets.
While the move is being hailed by environmentalists, it underscores a deeper problem: the U.S.—and California in particular—has no real domestic plan for the plastic it produces. The global plastics industry, tied tightly to oil production and petrochemicals, has little incentive to meaningfully scale back. As demand for fossil fuels declines in other sectors, plastics have become a growth strategy for oil producers.
Advocates say that exporting plastic to poorer nations has long served as a smokescreen for a broken recycling system. “The plastics that are not feasible to be recycled are often dumped, burned, or released into waterways,” said Jim Puckett of the Basel Action Network. “The export of plastic waste for recycling is a complete sham.”
California officials point to a decline in exports—from 842 million pounds of plastic to Malaysia in 2018 to 16 million this year—as evidence of progress. But critics argue that the system is still fundamentally flawed.
In 2022, California passed SB 54, which aims to create a circular economy for plastics. But until those regulations are finalized, California’s waste—and the global damage it causes—will keep piling up.
