THE Philippines has started returning 69 containers full of rubbish to Canada after a long-running row over waste exports that has tested diplomatic ties amid threats from President Rodrigo Duterte
THE Philippines has started returning 69 containers full of rubbish to Canada after a long-running row over waste exports that has tested diplomatic ties amid threats from President Rodrigo Duterte. The containers were loaded overnight onto a vessel at the Port of Subic for Vancouver. A Philippine court in 2016 declared the import of 2,400 tonnes of Canadian waste illegal. It had been mislabelled as plastics for recycling.
Canada said the waste, exported to the Philippines between 2013 and 2014, was a private commercial transaction done without the government's consent, reports London's Daily Telegraph.
The Philippines had accused Canada of stalling, prompting angry rebukes from President Duterte. He threatened to declare war on Canada, dump the trash in front of its embassy in Manila, or personally sail with the waste and leave it in Canadian waters.
The Philippines is the latest Southeast Asian nation to take issue with developed nations they say use the region as a dumping grounds for waste.
Malaysia, the world's main destination for plastic waste after China, said on Tuesday it would return as much as 3,000 tonnes of waste back to the countries of origin.
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