Reinforced Monitoring Activities for Prevention of Illegal Export and Import of Wastes by the Regional Environment Offices during the Reduce, Reuse and Recycle (3R) Promotion Month

Export of recyclable wastes from Japan tends to increase drastically because of expansion of resource demand accompanied with rapid economic growth in the Asian countries. On the other hand, it is reported that some wastes are intended to be exported illegally to other countries, and the adverse effects to human health and the environment are caused by the environmentally unsound management of wastes in importing countries. In order to tackle those issues, reinforced monitoring activities to prevent illegal export and import will be undertaken in cooperation with Customs as one of the activities of the 3R Promotion Month this October.

The planned activities are as follows:
1) Strengthened joint inspection of dubious cargos by authorities of MOE and Customs;
2) Yard investigation of part of cargos for which the pre-application consultation is made by exporters or Customs agents;
3) Enhanced communication of the legal framework to control export and import of wastes and the pre-application consultation service by distributing the brochures and disseminating information of training workshops for importers and exporters.

For Japanese