Chungyuen Plastic Manufacture Co Ltd has been ordered to return the 83 containers filled with plastic waste that was found at Sihanoukville port to their countries of origin.

The firm has been fined more than one billion riel ($250,000) for illegally importing the waste.

The company, which an official said had nothing to do with China, will have to pay the fine by no later than August 24, reporters were told at a press conference at the General Department of Customs and Excise on Tuesday.

Kun Nhem, the director-general of the General Department of Customs and Excise, said the 83 containers, weighing a total of 1,562 tonnes, were imported over 17 separate occasions between last September and January.

Seventy containers, weighing 1,322 tonnes, were imported from the US and 13, weighing 270 tonnes, from Canada.

They had passed through ports in Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam before reaching Cambodia, he added.