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Philippines & Malaysia are shipping trash back to Canada


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Is this how Canada preserve their nature? :rolleyes:

Philippines' Duterte loses patience, orders trash shipped back Canada
May 22, 2019 / 6:39 PM / 6 days ago

MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines’ President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered his government to hire a private shipping company to send 69 containers of garbage back to Canada and leave them within its territorial waters if it refuses to accept the trash, his spokesman said on Wednesday.

“The Philippines as an independent sovereign nation must not be treated as trash by other foreign nation,” Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo told a media briefing.

Canada says the waste, exported to the Philippines between 2013 and 2014, was a commercial transaction done without the government’s consent.

Canada had already agreed to take the rubbish back and the two countries were in the process of arranging the transfer.

But Canada missed a May 15 deadline set by Manila to take back the shipment, prompting the Philippines to withdraw top diplomats from Canada last week.

“Obviously, Canada is not taking this issue nor our country seriously. The Filipino people are gravely insulted about Canada treating this country as a dump site,” Panelo said.

On Wednesday, Canada said it had hired a company, Bollore Logistics Canada, “to safely bring the waste back to Canada as soon as possible,” according to a government statement.

“The removal will be complete by the end of June, as the waste must be safely treated to meet Canadian safety and health requirements,” the statement said.

The Philippines has made several diplomatic protests to Canada since a 2016 court ruling that the garbage be returned.

The consignments were labeled as containing plastics to be recycled in the Philippines but were filled with a variety of rubbish including diapers, newspapers and water bottles.

Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland spoke to her Filipino counterpart, Teodoro Locsin, about the garbage spat last week.

“As I mentioned to their Foreign Secretary last week, we are committed to resolving this issue as quickly as possible. Today is an essential step forward in accomplishing that,” Freeland said in the statement on Wednesday.

The issue is not the only one to strain ties between the two countries.

Last year, Duterte ordered the military to cancel a $233 million deal to buy 16 helicopters from Canada, after Ottawa expressed concern they could be used to fight rebels.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-philippines-canada-waste/philippines-duterte-loses-patience-orders-trash-shipped-back-canada-idUSKCN1SS14D

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'We are going to send this back': Malaysia returning unwanted Canadian plastic

Official hopes Canadians will demand 'better tracking and monitoring' of recycling

David Common · CBC News · Posted: May 28, 2019 4:30 AM ET | Last Updated: an hour ago

Malaysia is denouncing Canada's "irresponsible" export of plastic waste, becoming the second Asian nation to make plans to ship Canadian trash back across the ocean.

On Tuesday, Malaysian officials opened a shipping container filled with plastic bags from major Canadian chains, as well as product packaging stamped with "Made in Canada" labels from recognizable brands.

"I think you need to take back your rubbish," Malaysian Environment Minister Yeo Bee Yin told a CBC News crew at Port Klang, a sprawling facility outside Kuala Lumpur.

Authorities did not identify which company exported the plastic from Canada. But they said it will be returned to that exporter after it was deemed to be too contaminated and of insufficient value for legitimate recyclers in Malaysia to take it in.

It's not known if the plastic in Malaysia came from a municipal recycling program, but shipping waste halfway around the world and back is not likely what Canadians think of when they drop plastic for recycling into their blue bin.

"I hope this will make Canadians angry as well," the environment minister said. "This is the irresponsible export of plastic, of waste. It's household garbage, it smells bad."

Philippines also returning rejected waste

Malaysia's move comes amid an outcry in the Philippines over containers of fetid waste that have been stuck there for years.

Dozens of containers filled with contaminated plastic and other waste are set to leave the Philippines bound for Canada this week after a diplomatic brouhaha over the rubbish, which was sent abroad by a Canadian company in 2013 and 2014.

The years-old issue came to light again recently when President Rodrigo Duterte lashed out over the garbage, saying in late April that the garbage was going back to Canada — with or without help from authorities in Ottawa.

The Philippines issued bombastic complaints about Ottawa delaying the return of the container, and eventually moved to recall its envoys to Canada.

With the departure of the containers now imminent, Filipino Foreign Minister Teodoro Locsin Jr. had some choice words about the issue on Twitter.

The story of Canada's plastic waste — first in the Philippines and now in Malaysia — has travelled across Asia.

More than 100 journalists were present when Malaysian authorities opened the Canadian container, along with containers from the U.S., China, Japan and Saudi Arabia.

"We are going to send this back to Canada," Malaysia's environment minister told CBC News. "We really hope the people of Canada will demand better tracking and monitoring of your waste recycling."

What's in the container?

CBC's team in Malaysia found plastic bags from several Canadian grocery giants, including Loblaws, No Frills, Walmart and Costco. The bin also held product packaging from bread and meat companies, like Dempster's and Schneiders.

It's not known how these items ended up with the waste sent to Malaysia, which has just 50 licensed plastic recyclers. Those licensed operators are allowed to import containers full of plastic from countries like Canada, and are required to adhere to specific environmental regulations.

But the government estimates there are likely hundreds of other operators — some remote and illegal, others existing under the cover of a legitimate licence holder — that are potentially operating outside the rules.

While some plastic is broken down into pellets for re-use, local authorities have said those "under the radar" operators are known to dump, bury and burn less valuable plastics.

Enormous piles of dust-like plastic residue is left to contaminate groundwater, and often leaves a haze over certain regions of the country.

It's a long way from what many consumers in Canada likely expect when they take their blue box to the curb.

Plastic recycling is a multi-billion dollar global business. Only certain higher-value plastics are in demand in North America for recycling, and the United States has much of the capacity.

For years, China was the destination of choice for plastic waste, taking in virtually any consumer or industrial product for recycling. But contaminated imports, worsening air pollution and a shifting economy prompted Chinese authorities to abruptly ban imports of plastic for recycling in 2017.

Brokers in the developed world, including in Canada, struggled to find new markets to send the plastic from millions of blue boxes. For many months, it was piled high in Canadian warehouses or incinerated.

Then Chinese operators shifted their businesses to neighbouring countries, including Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. They joined existing recyclers in once again welcoming the developed world's plastic.

Canadians recycle just 11 per cent of all the plastics we use — much of it sent far away to be recycled, or otherwise.

That has prompted some groups in Canada to call for a reduction in the use of plastics, rather than a reliance on recycling. Especially as the nations where the developed world sends some of its plastic to be recycled are increasingly closing the door.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/take-back-your-rubbish-malaysia-returning-unwanted-canadian-plastic-1.5152274

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Malaysia to ship back tonnes of plastic waste to Canada, USA, UK & Australia

By Staff  The Associated Press 
 
Malaysia will send back some 3,000 metric tons of non-recyclable plastic waste to countries such as the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia in a move to avoid becoming a dumping ground for rich nations, Environment Minister Yeo Bee Yin said Tuesday.

Yeo said Malaysia and many developing countries have become new targets after China banned the import of plastic waste last year.

 

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The hypocrisy of the first world regarding environment is nauseating. It is new form of colonisation. Not to mention the absurdily posh and unfair EU policies, mostly tailored from rich countries who don't take into account the monetary difficulties of other poorer countries in the EU. Something must be done about environment in the world, but the solution is neither sending trash away or imposing absurds laws without knowing if people can afford to obey them! 

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This makes me so annoyed.  Here in Australia, we have been recycling for years with people taking it very seriously and feeling proud of helping the planet. Everyone separating their recyclables from rubbish in bins specially marked for years.   There were reports on recycling plants etc shown and everyone just thought it was being done.  However,  it was revealed that in fact the over whelming majority of the recyclable material was sent to China.  When they stopped taking it,  there was a huge build up as Australia had no great recycling plans in place at all. So wrong and lazy.  So much was then dumped in major tips instead of recycling.  

Why on Earth did Australia NOT invest in their own recycling plants full scale.  Make an industry out of it - help the environment and reduce waste.  It is infuriating and shameful.  Not to mention lazy and arrogant. 

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