Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental/Quezon City. The waste and pollution watch group, EcoWaste Coalition, applauded the departure from the Philippines of 51 containers of illegal garbage exports from South Korea extolling the move as a “triumph for environmental justice, morality and the rule of law.”
The 51 containers of illegal garbage languishing at the Mindanao International Container Terminal (MICT) in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental were finally shipped back Sunday to South Korea where the assorted wastes came from several months ago.
Discovery of over 5,000 tons of South Korean hazardous waste on the Philippine island of Mindanao marks a rising trend of illegal foreign dumping on the island nation
Quezon City. The governments of the Philippines and South Korea have reached agreement that will ensure the repatriation of some 6,500 tons of mixed wastes stranded at Misamis Oriental to their origin in Pyeongtaek City this January.
High levels of toxic substances have been found in over 32% of children’s toys tested in a recent analysis of toxic heavy metals and chemicals in toys on the market in the Philippines. None of the samples, including a toy with 198,900 ppm of lead, provided a list of chemicals that make up a toy nor provided text or graphic warnings. The study, released on the Universal Children’s Day on November 20, the day when the UN General Assembly adopted the “Declaration of the Rights of the Child” in 1959 as well as the “Convention on the Rights of the Child” in 1989, underscores the need to expedite the enactment of the proposed Safe and Non-Toxic Children’s Product Act in the Philippines. The Act seeks to regulate the manufacture, importation, distribution and sale of children’s toys, school supplies, childcare articles and other related products containing toxic chemicals beyond the permissible limits. The study was conducted by the EcoWaste Coalition, a public interest NGO in the Philippines, and IPEN, a global network of public interest health and environment NGOs.
Quezon City. After its protest action outside the Korean Embassy in Taguig City last November 15, the EcoWaste Coalition, an environmental health and justice group, today cheered the Korean government for confirming its commitment to take back the illegal garbage shipments languishing in Misamis Oriental.
The “Embassy of the Republic of Korea would like to inform you the government has taken action on the recent controversy of waste imported to the Philippines,” said the Embassy through an e-mail sent today to the EcoWaste Coalition.
