South Korea trash ready for pickup on June 30

MANILA, Philippines — The remaining 5,000 metric tons of garbage that arrived from South Korea at the Mindanao International Container Terminal (MICT) in Misamis Oriental last year will be ready for pickup by June 30, an official of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) said yesterday.

BOC-MICT sub-port collector John Simon said it was agreed during a two-day meeting with South Korean environment officials that a ship would be sent to pick up the garbage.  

“By... June 30...  all the leftover garbage should have been placed in containers and at the docking area of the MICT for the arrival of the vessel sent by the Korean government,” Simon said. 

The shipment is stored in a recycling plant owned by the consignee, Verde Soko Philippines Industrial Inc., in Barangay Sta. Cruz, Tagoloan. 

Simon said it is up to the consignee and broker of the shipment to hire the needed personnel and equipment to load the trash onto shipping containers and transport it to the MICT. 

“Under Republic Act 6969 (An Act to Control Toxic Substances and Hazardous and Nuclear Wastes)... the person, company or groups responsible for bringing in waste into the country should also be responsible in bringing it back to the country of origin,” he said. 

The BOC said two garbage shipments, both misdeclared as synthetic plastic flakes, arrived from South Korea on July 21 and Oct. 20 last year.

Shipping containers, which contained 1,500 metric tons of garbage, were shipped back to South Korea last January. 

At least 2,000 tons of toxic waste from Canada and 2.5 tons of electronic trash from Hong Kong were also returned to their place of origin recently.