Indonesia sends back waste containers to western nations

Indonesia is sending dozens of containers of waste back to Western nations after finding it was contaminated with used nappies, plastic and other materials, adding to a growing backlash in Southeast Asia against being a dumping ground for the developed world's rubbish.

The country's directorate general of customs said Tuesday that 49 containers in Batam port near Singapore will be returned to Australia, the US, France, Germany and Hong Kong.

Separately, the head of customs at East Java's Tanjung Perak port, Basuki Suryanto, said eight other containers with 210 tons of waste that arrived from Australia last month were supposed to contain only paper but included nappies, plastic bottles and oil packaging.

China recently banned the import of plastic waste, resulting in more being sent to Southeast Asia.