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

The export of recyclable wastes from Japan has a tendency to rise drastically with an increase in resource demands accompanied with rapid economic growth in the Asian countries. On the other hand, it is reported that some intend to illegal export wastes to other countries, and adverse effects to human health and to 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 such 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 will be: 1) Strengthened joint inspection of dubious cargo by authorities of the Ministry of the Environment and Customs; 2) Yard investigation of parts of cargo for which pre-application consultation is made by exporters or customs agents; 3) Enhanced communication of the legal framework to control the export and import of wastes and the pre-application consultation service by distributing brochures and disseminating information on training workshops for importers and exporters.

For Japanese