Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) – Garbage from Canada found at the Port of Manila last year were disposed in Tarlac this week.
Environmentalist group Ban Toxics insists that the container vans of “toxic, hazardous garbage” should be shipped back to Canada.
“It can have bacteria. It can even cause cancer. It can go up the air. When you inhale it can cause mutations and can cause cancer,” says Anna Kapunan, global chemical management coordinator of Ban Toxics.
But the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) disputes this.
DENR Undersecreatry Jonas Leones, who is also director of the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB), says that analysis done by the DENR showed the garbage was not toxic nor hazardous.
It’s composed only of municipal solid waster, food waste, cartons, and household wastes.
Ban Toxics says the waste was sent to the Philippines in staggered shipments from June to August in 2013. The first batch had 50 vans, the second 48.
Ban Toxics says each container van can hold 25 tons of garbage. So that’s 2,450 tons of garbage in total.
A college basketball court has an area of 4,200 square feet (a little over 390 square meters).
Imagine a basketball court filled with garbage up to a height of about 5 feet, 4 inches – and add another half court to that.
That’s Ban Toxics’ estimate of just how much garbage Canada dumped on our shores.
The group is citing the Basel Convention, an international treaty that bans the transboundary movement of waste.
It states that itss the responsibility of the country that shipped the waste to take it back within 30 days.
Ban Toxics says this is what happened in 1999 when Japan dumped trash in our shores, with the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) leading the protests.
Kapunan said then Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon actively campaigned to have the waster sent to back to Japan in 30 days. He was able to do so.
But in this case, Assistant Secretary Charles Jose, DFA spokesperson, said the matter was handled Bureau of Customs and the DENR.
The Bureau of Customs says that it was just following a court order in disposing the trash in Tarlac.
While the DENR agrees no country should dump its waste on our shores, it also says diplomatic relations should be considered in handling the issue.
Ban Toxics disagrees.
There are 21 more container vans of Canadian ready to be dumped in Tarlac within the week.
