April 23, 2020: Malaysia’s Environment and Water Ministry on March 30 stopped an illegal attempt to import five containers of used lead-acid batteries, the US-based NGO BAN (Basel Action Network) reported on April 3.

The ministry managed to stop the five containers coming onshore at Port Klang, thanks to information shared by the Australian government, and issued a notice to the shipping company to send the shipment back to Australia, its point of origin.

It said under the Basel Convention the shipment was classified as hazardous waste and that delivery had been made without the approval of the Department of Environment, which abides by the rules of the Basel Convention for Malaysia, the report said.

No other information was given about the source of the used lead batteries.

BAN was created in 1997 by Jim Puckett. It was originally a project of the Asia Pacific Environmental Exchange which he also co-founded.

An NGO based in Seattle, Washington, the organization says it is ‘the most steadfast supporter of the UN Basel Convention, which restricts the international hazardous waste trade’.

In 1989 the United Nations created the Basel Convention on the control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, which required all countries to obtain prior consent from a receiving country before exporting hazardous waste.