Waste shipment returned to SoKor on Sunday

MANILA, Philippines — At least 51 shipping containers of garbage will finally be returned to South Korea on Sunday.

The EcoWaste Coalition said yesterday it received the confirmation through a text message sent by Mindanao International Container Terminal (MICT) port collector John Simon.

“The arrival of the vessel (Maersk Shipping Lines) will be on the 12th of January and the loading of the cargo will begin immediately on the same day,” Aileen Lucero, national coordinator of the EcoWaste Coalition, quoting Simon, said.

Simon said the loading of the last shipping container is expected to be completed at around 9 a.m. on Sunday.

“The slight delay should not dampen our nation’s jubilation over the looming departure of the... garbage shipment to Pyeongtaek City where it came from,” Simon’s text message added.

Lucero said concerned parties should now focus on the rebagging and reexport of other waste shipments dumped in a government-managed industrial park in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental. 

“We expect the... cooperation of the consignee, the Korean government and our national and local government agencies,” Lucero said.

Aside from the shipping containers that arrived at the MICT in October 2018, more than 5,000 tons of garbage misdeclared as plastic synthetic flakes consigned to Verde Soko arrived at the MICT in July 2018. The shipments have no import clearance from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

“The removal of all the 6,500 tons of mixed waste cargoes from South Korea should send a clear signal to rich countries, including Canada, that have yet to take back their reeking trash from our land that the Philippines is not a dumping ground for their garbage,” Lucero said.

”This should also prompt our policy makers into... banning the importation of plastic and other foreign wastes to protect public health and the environment,” she added.