Hazardous waste flowing into Philippines

MANILA -- Hazardous waste from industrialised countries is still flowing into the Philippines despite a national law banning waste imports into the country, Greenpeace has revealed. The February 17 statement came just a few days before the organisation's ship, MV Greenpeace, arrived in the Philippines for the first time.

According to Simon Divecha, coordinator of Greenpeace's current Asia toxic trade tour, thousands of tonnes of hazardous waste including metal scrap, plastic waste, computer junk and lead scrap had entered the Philippines in the past few months despite a Philippines law passed in 1990 banning toxic waste imports for any purpose. He said the waste was entering the Philippines under the guise of “recycling”.

“Western countries are practising toxic imperialism, riding roughshod over national law to rid themselves of their own waste problems”, Divecha said.

Computer waste, which is classified as hazardous in Germany, is being shipped to the Philippines regularly while thousands of tonnes of waste plastics, including PVC scrap, from Australia, Germany and the US, arrive every week”

Besides being a dump site for western hazardous waste, the Philippines is also a target for dirty industry, such as incineration, which is increasingly being rejected in industrialised countries. On the island of Mindanao, there is a proposal to build an incinerator and “waste to energy” plant which would burn municipal waste imported from western countries.

This article was posted on the Green Left Weekly Home Page.
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