Environmental group calls anew for ban on trash imports

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY—Environment watchdog EcoWaste Coalition has renewed its call for government to impose a ban on waste imports after some 53,000 metric tons of radioactive materials from Gwangyang City in South Korea were found in Zambales last week. “We have yet to return more than 5,000 MT of contaminated plastic wastes to South Korea. [While these imported wastes remained] in Misamis Oriental, a new controversy involving the recent toxic shipments looms,” Thony Dizon, EcoWaste Coalition chemical safety campaigner, said in a statement. The Bureau of Customs in Northern Mindanao earlier scheduled the remaining 5,177 MT of mixed garbage stored inside the Phividec Industrial Authority facility to be shipped back to South Korea. Dizon proposed that government agencies tasked to check the cargoes coming in from other countries should immediately order their return once the cargoes were found to be illegal.