Kedah Factory Raided For Illegally Recycling Plastic And Packing It Into Fish Feed Bags

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The Kedah Environment Department (JAS) raided a recycling factory in Kuala Muda suspected of processing used plastic to make fish pellets on Wednesday.

Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability, Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, said the Ops Patuh raid was conducted with the police and immigration department (JIM).

Astro Awani reported that the factory was operating illegally by producing plastic pellets and packing them in fish feed bags.

The raid discovered around 100 metric tons of pellets that had been processed and packed into plastic bags labelled “freshwater fish food.” Additionally, they found 20 used plastic packs that have yet to be processed.

The enforcement was carried out under the Environment Act 1974 while the premises is investigated under Section 18 for functioning as an off-site facility for scheduled waste without licensing from JAS.

The factory owner committed an offence under Section 34(a) for failing to produce the environmental impact report to JAS and Section 34(b) for placing scheduled waste without approval from JAS director.

Nik Nazmi said preventative measures had been taken to stop factory operations and confiscating equipment on the premises under Section 38(1)(a) of the Environment Act. Further investigations are underway.

Currently, it’s unknown if the packed plastic fish pellets were done to deceive the authorities for shipment purposes or to be fraudulently sold as proper fish food to unsuspecting customers.

Nevertheless, the news report worried some people who believed the fish in the market had been fed with plastic pellets instead of real fish food.

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