> Some recycling is bought by other countries, but they buy it to use it, not to stack it into artificial mountains.

Any source for this?

A lot of plastic waste exports destination are in South-East Asia [0]. In the EU, with all its modern infrastructure and capacities, only 41% of the plastic packaging waste is being recycled [1]. So which portion of the imported plastic waste can we assume will be recycled in Malaysia?

Documentaries [2] and [3] support the opposite thesis as yours, stating that imported plastic waste is imply dumped.

The OECD report on Monitoring trade in plastic waste and scrap [3] indicates that even the ban on hazardous waste (Basel Ban) exports is not having any effect.

  [0]: Share of global plastic waste imports, 2021 - https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-plastic-waste-imports?time=2021
  [1]:  41% of plastic packaging waste recycled in 2022  - https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/w/ddn-20241024-3
  [2]: Your plastic waste might be traded by criminals - https://youtu.be/tID-AChSg7o?t=246
  [3]: UK plastic for “recycling” dumped and burned in Turkey - BBC News - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw6KR2vj_bc
  [4]: https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/support-materials/2024/04/monitoring-trade-in-plastic-waste-and-scrap_0c401097/Monitoring%20trade%20in%20plastic%20waste%20and%20scrap%20PH.pdf

There have been several cases in which countries were paid to take plastic trash for "recycling" - and recycling became "let's just dump it somewhere":

https://www.unodc.org/unodc/frontpage/2024/March/explainer_-...