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My home is not a dumping ground

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Published on Friday, 11 April 2014 11:20
Written by editor

Change.org

Canadian Government: Please re-export the 50 shipping containers of Canadian trash illegally sent to the Philippines.

Sign Anna's Petition PAOV,

Last summer, 50 forty-foot shipping containers that were declared as containing recyclable plastic arrived at a port in Manila, Philippines, exported from Canada by an Ontario based company called Chronic Plastics. They sat there unclaimed and unopened until this January when the smell got so bad that port officials began worrying the containers might contain potentially dangerous materials.

What they found when they finally opened 18 of the containers shocked them: trash from Canada including human waste. The Philippines Bureau of Customs immediately declared the shipment illegal saying "The BOC will not allow that our country will become a garbage dump." Yes, there was recyclable plastic as Chronic claimed, but there was also trash, which Philippine authorities have categorized as hazardous waste.

The Philippines does not deserve to be a dumping ground for trash from Canada. The Philippines Department of Environment has requested that the Canadian Government, in particular Environment Canada, re-export the waste as is their responsibility as the exporting country under international law, but the garbage still sits there.

I'm a health advocate for local communities in the Philippines. Together with Greenpeace Philippines, EcoWaste Coalition, ANG NARS, Green Convergence, Mother Earth Foundation, Ban Toxics, PSLINK and Ateneo School of Government, I started a petition demanding the Canadian Government re-export the trash as soon as possible. This decision will be made by the Canadian Government and Canadian signatures matter. Please sign our petition and show your support for the Philippines and our right to protect our environment!

The containers are still sitting at the port and toxic "garbage juice" from the containers is leaking into the bay posing health and environment risks to local communities. With the rainy season approaching the spread of chemicals from the waste could be a disaster for local communities around Manila Bay.

Asia is a hot spot for the toxics trade. Hazardous waste smuggling from the developed to developing world disguised as recycling is known to happen here, and the Philippines must take a stand whenever this illegal activity is discovered. In 2000 a company in Japan illegally shipped hospital and household waste here. After much public pressure from both citizens in Japan and the Philippines, the Japanese Government agreed to export the waste. We can do this again.

Next week we will present our petition signatures to the Canadian Ambassador to the Philippines and we hope to tell him that Canadians are watching too. The Ambassador has said that the Embassy of Canada "has given assurances of its full cooperation with Philippine authorities in resolving this matter." The Philippines Government has already made it's position clear: it cannot accept garbage disguised as recycling from other countries. It's Canada's turn to respond. Please sign our petition and tell the Canadian Government that you don't think it's right to leave an illegal export of Canadian trash in the Philippines.

Thank you for your support,

Anna Marie Kapunan

Sign Anna's Petition

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