Customs ships e-trash back to Hong Kong

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines — After a few months of storage, the 2.561 tons of electronic waste (e-waste) from Hong Kong were finally sent back to their point of origin by the Bureau of Customs-Region 10 (BOC-10) yesterday.

The cargo, consisting mainly of shredded gadget parts and plastic scraps packed in 22 huge sling bags, arrived at the Mindanao Container Terminal (MCT) sub-port in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental on Feb. 2 and was put on hold by the BOC-10 for “misdeclaration.”

The imported garbage was shipped back to its point of origin on board the cargo ship SITC Nagoya, which departed the MCT sub-port yesterday. 

The consignee, Crowd Win Industrial Limited Corp. based in Pasay City, declared the shipment as “assorted electronic accessories” but the actual content of the container van turned out to be smashed components of electronic devices, BOC-10 said.

On March 5, the BOC-10 issued a warrant of seizure and detention against the shipment for violation of Section 1400 (misdeclaration) in relation to Section 117 (lack of import permit) of Republic Act 1086 or the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act.

The re-exportation of the waste from Hong Kong came on the heels of the long overdue departure of 69 shipping containers of Canadian garbage after languishing in the Philippines for six years, EcoWaste Coalition said in a statement.

“The export of this hazardous waste from Hong Kong in the guise of ‘assorted electronic accessories’ is illegal under the laws of Hong Kong and the Philippines and the Basel Convention,” MCT sub-port collector John Simon told reporters following the send-off ceremony of the Chinese trash at the MCT yesterday morning.

“It’s simple. They want to make us their dumping ground. But they did not prevail. This is a victory for the Filipinos,” Simon said, adding that if Chinese trash had not been intercepted by the Customs authorities, 70 more containers with the same type of waste would have entered the sub-port.