TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - East Java’s Tanjung Perak customs and excise is currently withholding eight containers shipped from Australia after it was known to be filled with scrap paper contaminated by household waste and hazardous waste.

Head of the customs and excise office Basuki Suryanto says that it is the second occurrence after the port management forced-returned five containers from the United States in June.

“The previous five containers were sent back to their country of origins. Now the eight containers have obtained the Environment and Forestry (KLHK) Ministry’s permit to be re-exported,” said Basuki in a press release on Tuesday, July 9.

The eight containers were imported by PT MDI (Mount Dreams Indonesia) which was shipped by Shipper Oceanic Multritrading Pty. Ltd from the Port of Brisbane, Australia, and arrived at the port of Tanjung Perak on June 12.

Tempo’s own field observation at the location where the containers are held saw that they were filled with household wastes such as used aluminum cans, plastic water bottles, engine oil cans, electronic trash, baby diapers, and other variants of used plastic products.

The port is also currently processing 58 containers from the U.S. and Germany that are filled with scrap papers. The containers are suspected to have the same issue as the one sent from Australia.

NURHADI (CONTRIBUTOR)