(Eagle News) – -The EcoWaste Coalition has reiterated its demand for Canada to take its trash back.
In her letter to Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Aileen Lucero, coordinator for the environmental group, noted that the issue of the container vans filled with mixed waste including diapers, electronic equipment, among others, languishing in the Philippines has “dragged on for five years without resolution, despite promises from the Canadian government to address the problem..”
According to Lucero, the “stark contrast between South Korea’s actions and Canada’s indifference to its dumped waste has captured public attention and stoked anger…”
On Jan. 9, South Korea took back 5,100 tons of its own trash that arrived last year in the Philippines, only months after the hazardous wastes—-wrongfully labelled as “plastic synthetic flakes”— were discovered in Tagaloan, Misamis Oriental.
As for Canada, Lucero said it was merely resorting to “disrespectful” conduct.
She noted the shipments contravene the provisions in the Basel Convention, of which Canada was a signatory.
The Basel Convention allows developed countries to ship hazardous wastes to developing countries but only with their consent.
She added Canada is one of several countries that have refused to amend the Basel Convention to ban the shipment of hazardous wastes in the first place.
The 103 shipping containers of garbage described as scrap plastics to be recycled were sent to the Philippines from 2013 to 2014 by Canadian companies.
In 2016, a Filipino judge ordered the trash, sitting at a Subic port, to be sent back to Canada.
In November 2017, during his visit to the Philippines for the 31st Summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Trudeau had said Canada was “very much engaged in finding a solution” to the issue, but that Canada had “no legal authority” to force the companies that shipped the containers to take them back.
