EcoWaste to Duterte: Set deadline on return of trash to Australia, S. Korea

MANILA, Philippines – EcoWaste Coalition on Thursday urged President Rodrigo Duterte to set a deadline on the shipping back of tons of garbage in Mindanao to Australia and South Korea.

The pro-environment group, in a statement, said that it hopes that President Duterte will use his upcoming fourth State of the Nation Address (Sona) to “reinforce his resolute stance against foreign waste dumping.”

“We also want him to set a definite deadline for the immediate re-export of Australian and South Korean waste shipments that are still languishing in Mindanao,” EcoWaste Coalition National Coordinator Aileen Lucero said.

211 tons of waste-derived processed engineered fuel from Australia arrived in Misamis Oriental on May 3.

READ: Trash from Australia not toxic, says BOC

Meanwhile, 5,177 metric tons of illegally shipped Korean waste materials arrived in Cagayan de Oro in July and October last year.

The shipment is currently stored in the premises of the Phividec Industrial Authority facility.

In May, the Department of Finance (DOF) said that the trash shipment from South Korea will be shipped back after Seoul vowed to shoulder costs.

READ: South Korea promises to take back garbage, says DOF

Lucero added that with Duterte’s upcoming Sona, she hopes he can rouse the nation into “into embracing much-needed waste prevention and reduction strategies at all levels, including banning single-use plastics, to curb chemical and waste pollution that is also threatening the world’s oceans.”

“We call on President Duterte to throw his weight behind the campaign to stop plastic pollution and to urge the 18th Congress to pass without delay a robust law banning single-use plastics, as well as to enact other plastic pollution prevention measures, including the ban on microplastics in personal care and cosmetic products,” Lucero said. /gsg