Manila: Even after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vowed to settle the garbage dumping issue with the Philippines, environmentalists insist that the trash be returned immediately to ensure that similar incidents in the future will not happen.
While Trudeau knows about the trash-dumping incident, he was non-committal on the issue of taking the garbage back to Canada.
“I have obviously been made aware of the situation and I’ve also been told that there is a Canadian solution in the process of being developed. But, at the same time, I know that this has exposed a problem that needs fixing within our own legislation that we’re going to lean into and make sure happens,” Trudeau said.
Ecowaste said the Philippines cannot be made to wait while Canada is not even in the planning stage of a legislation to stop exports of trash.
Between June 2013 to January 2014, a total of 103 container vans containing mixed garbage from Canada — declared as “plastic scraps” for recycling, arrived at the Port of Manila in 10 batches.
Some said that this practice had been going on for years, but on that particular occasion, inspectors from the Bureau of Customs were able to intercept the shipment.
Ecowaste also said Trudeau’s promise of a “Canadian solution” must not be used as an excuse to justify the extended stay of the trash shipment in the Philippines.
Rene Pineda, vice-president of EcoWaste, reiterated there are international laws that govern such cross-border movements of trash, which can also be considered hazardous waste because of the threat it poses on human health.
“Prime Minister Trudeau must have been made aware that the Basel Convention has become part of the laws of countries that acceded to it through ratification. Their [planned] enabling law cannot be inferior than the Convention,” he said.
The incidents involving the shipment of waste material across the border, is a subject that touches developing countries like the Philippines.
In the case of the Philippines, the country has become a virtual dumping ground of all kinds of waste from developed countries in the guise of exports.
The country is contending with thousands of tonnes of electronic wastes from export of used and often unserviceable appliances from countries such as Japan and Australia.
Ecowaste Coalition had earlier warned against accepting these used electronic items which contain lead and other poisonous substances.
“Engaging in an illegal waste trade that treats low- and middle-income countries like dumps is a failed policy of the past. Continuing this practice — which is in violation of the Basel Convention — will only deepen wounds between our countries and exacerbate the injustice to the Filipino people,” Ecowaste Coalition campaigner, Aileen Lucero earlier said.
