COLOMBO: Sri Lanka is seeking compensation for damage caused by waste imported illegally from the UK, an official said on Tuesday, as the South Asian country shipped out the last of several hundred containers of unwanted refuse. 

A total of 263 shipping containers from Britain, holding more than 3,000 tons of waste, arrived at the port of Colombo under the guise of scrap metal for recycling in 2019. But a foul smell emanating from the shipment led to the discovery of rotting hazardous waste, including soiled mattresses and suspected human remains. 

“There were delays in repatriation due to COVID-19,” Ajit Weerasundara, deputy chairman of Sri Lanka’s Central Environmental Agency, told Arab News, “but the last 45 containers left (on Monday).”

Sri Lanka sent back the first batch to the UK in 2020, while the remaining containers were sealed “to make sure there was no more damage to the environment” before being returned, Weerasundara said. 

Sri Lanka is party to the Basel Convention, which controls transnational movements of hazardous waste and its disposal, especially in developing nations. 

The government has confirmed it has written to the Basel Secretariat in Switzerland, and is finalizing paperwork seeking compensation for damage caused by the hazardous material that arrived two years ago. 

Environmental lawyer and activist Jagath Gunawardene described this week’s developments as “a significant step for Sri Lanka.”

The country is one of several Asian nations to reject exports of hazardous material from developed nations in recent years. These include Malaysia, which between 2019 and April last year sent 267 containers of illegal plastic waste back to their countries of origin. 

Gunawardene highlighted efforts by the Colombo-based Center for Environmental Justice, which filed a case against the parties it held responsible for the import, specifically the CEA and Customs, following the 2020 discovery. 

“We filed because we wanted to have this garbage repatriated and because we wanted to hold those responsible accountable,” Hemantha Withanage, CEJ executive director, told Arab News. 

The government has managed to send back the waste, but the CEJ is still waiting for officials to file a case against those who imported the illegal waste. 

“There may still be other containers with material like this at the port, we don’t know — these were the only ones that were discovered,” Withanage said.