DENR backs call to ban hazardous waste exports

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Environment and Natural Resources said Wednesday that it supports the ratification of the Basel Ban Amendment that prohibits the export of hazardous waste from developed countries to developing nations.

Acting environment chief Jim Sampulna said in a release that the Basel Ban Amendment would protect the country from illegal traffic of imported waste.

“In previous years, we have strongly fought against the import of hazardous wastes from countries who regarded our country as their dumpsites. Ratifying the Basel Ban Amendment will protect the Philippines from being a destination of hazardous wastes again,” Sampulna said.

The Philippines is party to the 1989 Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal. Congress ratified the treaty in October 1993 and it entered into force in January 1994. The country, however, has yet to ratify the Basel Ban Amendment.

Last month, EcoWaste Coalition urged President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to prioritize the ratification of the Basel Convention Ban Amendment “to uphold environmental health and justice.”

The entry of waste labeled for recycling is allowed under current Philippine laws. But there were cases of waste shipments purportedly for recycling that have been found to be mixed municipal waste or highly contaminated.

In May 2019, the Philippines returned 69 shipping containers full of waste, which had been mislabeled as plastics for recycling, to Canada. The row over garbage exports tested the diplomatic ties between Manila and Ottawa amid threats from outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte.

The government also returned 6,400 metric tons of mixed waste to South Korea.