Taiwan is prepared take back nearly 12,000 tonnes of toxic industrial waste exported to Malaysia after the environmental authorities found the import license for the shipment was bogus, an official said Monday.
The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) received a tip-off in January that a Taipei-based group had been exporting the toxic waste to its Malaysian partner with a fake Malaysian import license, an EPA official said.
The Malaysian government confirmed that the license provided by the Malaysian company was false and the EPA immediately called a halt to the export, EPA Solid Waste Control Bureau chief Chen Hsiung-wen told reporters.
The company, Hung-Yiu Technology of Environmental Protection Co, had already transported 11,879 tonnes of the waste, which contains high levels of heavy metals, to Malaysia, he said.
The Taipei city government had issued the company with 11 export permits to ship 16,351 tonnes of waste to Malaysia from January to November of 2003.
"The EPA has actively informed the Malaysian government and the Interpol and asked them to track down on the event ... while having Hung-Yiu's existing export licenses be revoked," Chen said.
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