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Charles McDermid

“Dear Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, please repatriate your garbage: it stinks.”
That’s the message from activists in the Philippines and Canada as thousands of tonnes of malodorous household waste continue to rot away on Manila and Subic docks.
The pressure mounted this week when an array of Canadian and international environmental groups threw their support behind the EcoWaste Coalition of the Philippines, a local network leading the fight against foreign waste.
The campaign is the latest attempt to break years of deadlock over 77 remaining shipping containers full of reeking garbage that started arriving illicitly from Vancouver, British Columbia in 2013 – and have been decaying in shipyard limbo ever since.


“The dumping of Canadian waste in the Philippines is immoral and illegal,” wrote Aileen Lucero, the national coordinator of EcoWaste, in an open letter to Trudeau on January 30.
“The scandal has dragged on for five years without resolution, despite promises from the Canadian government to address the problem, including public statements made by yourself as prime minister,” she said.

A separate letter on Monday – also addressed to Trudeau – from groups including Greenpeace and the Canadian Environmental Law Association called on the administration in Ottawa to finally act and help solve a dispute that has soured its relations with Manila for years.
“Prime Minister Trudeau has promised that Canada will act in an environmentally responsible manner and fulfil its obligations under the Basel Convention, which forbids dumping waste overseas,” wrote Kathleen Ruff, director of the human rights group RightOnCanada.
“Words are not enough,” she said. “Environmentalists in Canada and around the world are calling on PM Trudeau to take action now to end this shameful misconduct.”

‘UNBEARABLE’ STENCH
The dumping scandal began in 2013 when 103 shipping containers filled with an estimated 2,500 tonnes of waste falsely marked as plastics for recycling started arriving from Canada.
The Philippine Bureau of Customs (BOC) soon found that the containers actually held “plastic bags, soiled papers, household garbage, and used adult diapers”, and classified the waste as hazardous.
The Ontario-based company that shipped the containers from Canada has dismissed any claims of dumping, saying that the cost of shipping the waste to Southeast Asia would be much more than unloading it in Canada. It also pointed out in a report by the National Post that 2,500 tonnes is less than a day’s worth of trash from Vancouver.
This is why Philippines is world’s third-largest ocean plastic polluter
“I will not tolerate this matter sitting down,” Leah Paquiz, a member of the House of Representatives, said at the time. “My motherland is not a garbage bin of Canada.”
Other Philippine lawmakers were similarly outraged, a protest was held at the Canadian embassy, and 40,000 people signed an online petition denouncing Canada’s actions.


Months later, according to the Rappler news website, the Department of Foreign Affairs asked the Canadian embassy to help repatriate the rubbish. The ambassador at the time said that the Canadian government had no authority bring back the trash, and pleas from Philippine officials soon ceased.
Waste from 26 of the containers was illegally dumped at a landfill in Tarlac province in 2015, according to local news media, but the controversy went nowhere.
In 2017, port authorities said “the stench has become unbearable” and the BOC announced that the decaying waste “could cause health hazards”.
Environmentalists slam US$1 billion stunt to end plastic pollution
Joe DiGangi, a science and technical adviser for the anti-toxic waste network IPEN, described Canada’s behaviour as “like putting your garbage in your neighbour’s home, then refusing to remove it for five years while making excuses as to why you can’t take it back”.
“Local customs officials and environmental activists have expressed concern over the unsorted wastes containing toxic chemical additives and metals from the mixed plastics and e-waste. There is also the issue of microbial contamination from decaying soiled diapers and household trash,” said DiGangi.
“Workers at the port should not have to be exposed to Canada’s biological, chemical and physical hazards from the reeking rubbish.”

BREAKING! Illegal waste shipped to Phl fr South Korea back to sender soon! Philippines is not your dumping ground! Yes, Canada? When will you take back yours? https://t.co/wusX0wsX4q Good job @EcoWastePH | @GAIAnoburn #wastetrade #plasticpollution @gmanetwork @ANCALERTS #waste pic.twitter.com/ApGzQNyaT1
— GAIA Asia Pacific (@ZeroWasteAsia) January 2, 2019

‘THEORETICALLY POSSIBLE’
Since China banned imports of plastic waste in January 2018, countries in Southeast Asia have been swamped with the world’s trash. As DiGangi and others pointed out, however, there is a clear precedent on rubbish repatriation from the Philippines.
Last month, South Korea reportedly accepted the return of roughly 1,400 tonnes of waste that had been falsely labelled as plastic synthetic flakes – and promised to bring back approximately 5,100 tonnes of Korean garbage, according to EcoWaste.
It was the third time in the last year, according to Rappler, that mislabelled South Korean trash was returned by the Philippines.
“South Korea described their waste dumping in the Philippines as an international disgrace and began acting on it the same year it was discovered,” he said. “In contrast, Canada shamefully left their mess, apparently hoping the issue would be forgotten after five years.”

Groups ask #Basel Convention to examine #Canada’s non-compliance in #Philippines household waste dumping case pic.twitter.com/7UpNejCcGJ
— dennis estopace (@DennisEstopace) July 28, 2015

Trudeau was last confronted over the dumping scandal at an Asean summit held in Manila in 2017. At the time, he cited “legal barriers and restrictions” that had prevented the return of the festering rubbish.
He conceded that the issue was “long-standing irritant” to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, but insisted that the shipment had been a private transaction that was not linked to the Canadian government.
“Those regulations and impediments have now been addressed so it is now theoretically possible to get it back but there are still a number of question: who will pay for it, where the financial responsibility is, where the consequence are,” he told a news conference.
The Canadian embassy did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.
17 million pieces of plastic a year flushed into sea via Shing Mun River
Even if the rubbish on the docks seems to be going nowhere, the much-publicised scandal has brought attention to bigger issues. Lucero, of EcoWaste, said imports of “plastic trash for so-called recycling, has apparently become a legal cover for illegal waste trafficking”.
“The Canadian garbage dumping scandal has stirred a broad movement opposed to foreign waste dumping in the Philippines,” she said. “It underscores the need for our government and others to ratify the Basel Ban Amendment, which seeks to prevent the transfer of hazardous waste from developed to developing countries for any reason, including recycling and disposal.”
The amendment she referred to is a proposal meant to toughen the Basel Convention, a United Nations treaty on hazardous waste from 1992. Only two more countries need to join for the amendment to come into force. Among the 24 countries which have yet to ratify the amendment are Canada, the Philippines and South Korea.


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The Philippines

Five years on, Canada’s dumped garbage is still causing a big stink in the Philippines

The Canadian rubbish had been falsely labelled as plastics for recycling. Photo: Alamy

epa05032478 Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks at a press conference during the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Manila, Philippines, 19 November 2015. The APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting runs from 18 to 19 November in Manila. US President Barack Obama on 18 November called for the swift implementation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), calling it the 'most progressive trade deal ever.' The TPP members cover about 40 per cent of the world's economies, and consist of Australia, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, the United States, Vietnam, Chile, Brunei, Singapore and New Zealand. EPA/RITCHIE B. TONGO

A protest held in Manila calls on Canada to repatriate its rubbish. Photo: Twitter

Philippines plastic pollution: why so much waste ends up in oceans

The Philippines is the world’s third-largest ocean polluter despite a waste management act coming into effect 18 years ago. The culprits? Corruption, lack of political will – and an addiction to single-use plastic sachets

Handout image shows Froilan Grate, executive director of the Philippines branch of the grass-roots Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives.

[18CTOBER2018 FEATURES]

Handout image shows sachets that are disposed of in an un-environmentally way, in the Philippines. 

[18CTOBER2018 FEATURES]
 
CREDIT: Break Free From Plastic Movement

PWAMBN Single use plastic detergent sachets are a common household product used throughout the Philippines.More apparent in communities of the poor where lar

[19OCTOBER2018 FEATURE]

CREDIT: ALAMY

Handout image shows candles, and general plastic waste along the shore in the Philippines.

[18CTOBER2018 FEATURES]
 
CREDIT: Break Free From Plastic Movement

M1CYNH A Filipino woman tends her local sari-sari store, neighborhood convenience store, in Barretto, Luzon, Philippines.

[19OCTOBER2018 FEATURE]

CREDIT: ALAMY

Handout image shows Von Hernandez, one of the PhilippinesÕ most influential environmental activists and global coordinator of the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Movement.
 
[18CTOBER2018 FEATURES]
 
CREDIT: Break Free From Plastic Movement

This photo taken on May 19, 2018 shows a stuffed toy of the Sesame Street character "Elmo" surrounded by plastic waste on a beach on the Freedom island critical habitat and ecotourism area near Manila. About eight million tonnes of plastic waste are dumped into the world's oceans every year - the equivalent of one garbage truck of plastic being tipped into the sea every minute... of every day. Over half comes from five Asian countries: China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, according to a 2015 study in Science journal. / AFP PHOTO / Noel CELIS

This photo taken on May 12, 2018 shows Perigrina Santos, 81, collects the clothes before the rain beside a garbage filled creek in Manila. (Photo by NOEL CELIS / AFP)

[18OCTOBER2018 FEATURE]

CREDIT: AFP / Noel Celis

Volunteers cleaning general plastic waste along the shore in the Philippines, which is behind only China and Indonesia in the amount of its discarded plastic that ends up in the ocean. Photo: Break Free From Plastic

Dozens of companies launch US$1 billion bid to end plastic pollution in Asia but environmentalists dismiss it as ‘greenwashing’ stunt

Since China banned plastic waste imports in January 2018, Southeast Asia has become the world’s dumping ground. Photo: AFP

(FILES) In this file photo taken on December 19, 2017 shows rubbish collectors using heavy equipment to clear plastic trash on Kuta beach near Denpasar, on Indonesia's tourist island of Bali. Millions of tourists are drawn to Bali's palm-fringed scenery and rich marine life, but a British diver has released stark footage highlighting a growing problem in its famously crystal-clear waters: plastic rubbish. / AFP PHOTO / SONNY TUMBELAKA

This picture taken on June 1, 2018 shows a vendor selling food packed in plastic bags in Bangkok. About eight million tonnes of plastic waste are dumped into the world's oceans every year - the equivalent of one garbage truck of plastic being tipped into the sea every minute... of every day. Over half comes from five Asian countries: China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, according to a 2015 study in Science journal. / AFP PHOTO / Romeo GACAD

Plastic trash in Bali. Photo: Reuters

epa02981836 An undated handout image provided by Royal Dutch Shell on 27 October 2011 in London, Britain, shows a Shell worker at a petrol station. Anglo-Dutch oil company Shell reported 27 October a doubling of profits to 7.2 billion dollars in the third quarter of the current financial year. The figure for the three months up to the end of September compares with a profit of 3.5 billion dollars for the same period a year ago. EPA/ROYAL DUTCH SHELL/HANDOUT HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES

This picture taken on May 16, 2018 shows a man packing plastic bottles at a plastic waste centre on the outskirts of Beijing. About eight million tonnes of plastic waste are dumped into the world's oceans every year - the equivalent of one garbage truck of plastic being tipped into the sea every minute... of every day. Over half comes from five Asian countries: China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, according to a 2015 study in Science journal. / AFP PHOTO / Fred DUFOUR

In Indonesia, cleaning up the Citarum, ‘the world’s dirtiest river’, is now a military operation

The clogged Citarum river, West Java, Indonesia. Pictures: James Wendlinger

Adi Mulyadi, Head of Pawapeling poses for a photograph in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia. SCMP / James Wendlinger [FEATURES 2018]

Rubbish collected near the Citarum river.

Pollution on Citarum River near Curug Jompong, West Java, Indonesia. SCMP / James Wendlinger [FEATURES 2018]

Colonel Purwadi head of the Citarum Task Force Sector 7 at the Communal Waste Water Treatment Plant in Cisirung, West Java, Indonesia. SCMP / James Wendlinger [FEATURES 2018]

Rubbish collector works on Citarum River, West Java, Indonesia. SCMP / James Wendlinger [FEATURES 2018]

Communal Waste Water Treatment Plant in Cisirung, West Java, Indonesia. SCMP / James Wendlinger [FEATURES 2018]

Ramdan from Walhi NGO poses for a photograph, West Java, Indonesia. SCMP / James Wendlinger [FEATURES 2018]

Usep Supriadi shows his skin disease at Balekambang village, West Java, Indonesia. SCMP / James Wendlinger [FEATURES 2018]

News

Asia

Southeast Asia

Tonnes of rotting refuse have sat festering on the docks in the Philippines since arriving illicitly from Vancouver in 2013
Manila has repeatedly asked Canada to repatriate the rubbish, but Ottawa will only concede that it is ‘theoretically possible’


Tonnes of rotting waste have sat festering on Philippine docks since arriving illicitly from Canada in 2013. Ottawa wants nothing to do with it.


Canada

Environment

Diplomacy

Five years on, Canada’s dumped garbage is still causing a big stink in the Philippines

Tonnes of rotting refuse have sat festering on the docks in the Philippines since arriving illicitly from Vancouver in 2013 Manila has repeatedly asked Canada to repatriate the rubbish, but Ottawa will only concede that it is ‘theoretically possible’

Tonnes of rotting refuse have sat festering on the docks in the Philippines since arriving illicitly from Vancouver in 2013

Manila has repeatedly asked Canada to repatriate the rubbish, but Ottawa will only concede that it is ‘theoretically possible’