"Money in plastics," but more tossed out than recycled

"When he started recycling plastic waste in 1992, S.N. Cheah had to visit dumpsites all around the country to talk scavengers into collecting the material. Back then, plastic recycling was uncommon. Buyers were inconsistent, so few collected plastic waste."

"... [T]oday, Cheah cannot expand his factory production because he cannot get more plastic waste, which he uses to make plastic pallets. A lot of our plastic waste, he says, is being exported to China which offers lucrative prices for plastic scraps.

Cheah, executive director of Intraco Group, makes pallets out of plastic waste. Factories and warehouses require pallets to transport, load and stack cargo. ... there is now a shift towards plastic pallets. Metal pallets are expensive while wooden ones tend to rot and produce splinters that can contaminate food products. Plastic pallets, on the other hand, are durable, washable, maintenance-free and recyclable."

... "Cheah estimates that Malaysians toss out some 800 tonnes of HDPE waste each month. His factory can recycle all of that but is getting no more than 500 tonnes - ... [e]xports of plastic waste are depriving local recyclers of raw materials and some, like Intraco, have resorted to imports to make up shortfalls in local supplies."