MAGAHIS, MARIANE O.

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Take back your garbage ASAP, South Korea told

An environmental advocacy group on Thursday urged the government of South Korea to “act
decisively” in ensuring the speedy return of tons of garbage it dumped into the country.

At a peaceful protest held on Thursday outside the Embassy of the Republic of South Korea, the
EcoWaste Coalition said they submitted a letter to Ambassador Han Dong-ma appealing to the
South Korea government to act with urgency in addressing the garbage dumping in Mindanao.

Members of the environmental group EcoWaste troop to the South Korean embassy to urge the
South Korean government to act swiftly to ensure a speedy return of tons of garbage imported
from South Korea and discovered at the Mindanao international container terminal. GRIG C.
MONTEGRANDE/INQUIRER

An environmental advocacy group on Thursday urged the government of South Korea to “act
decisively” in ensuring the speedy return of tons of garbage it dumped into the country.

At a peaceful protest held on Thursday outside the Embassy of the Republic of South Korea, the
EcoWaste Coalition said they submitted a letter to Ambassador Han Dong-ma appealing to the
South Korea government to act with urgency in addressing the garbage dumping in Mindanao.

“We strongly believe that the Philippines, a sovereign country, deserves not to be treated as a
garbage dump. In fact, we believe no country or community should be debased as a dumping
ground for garbage,” Ecowaste Coalition President Eileen Sison said in a statement.

The group drew attention to the 5,100 metric tons of plastic and other waste materials, including
used dextrose tubes, diapers, batteries, bulbs and electronic equipment dumped at the Mindanao
International Container Terminal (MICT) in Misamis Oriental and the hundreds of giant bales of
garbage found at a Cagayan de Oro warehouse.

The group also expressed fear that developed countries like South Korea turn to low and middle-
income countries to dump their plastic wastes.
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“We are concerned that plastics that are difficult or are costly to recycle in your country are being
dumped in low- and middle-income countries such as the Philippines in the guise of ‘recycling,’”
the group’s National Coordinator Aileen Lucero said.

“The Philippines has a serious plastic waste problem that is already spilling into the world’s
oceans, and the export of plastic scraps and mis-declared waste materials from the Republic of
Korea is only exacerbating our plastic dilemma,” she added.

The group also urged the South Korean government that in order to ensure that garbage dumping
will never occur again, their government must strengthen its regulatory controls that will prevent
the export of garbage to countries guised as “recycling.”

“Any trade in plastic waste should be subjected to strict controls based on the numerous negative
experiences of Southeast Asian countries, and responsibility for dealing with them must be
shouldered by manufacturers, following extended producer responsibility and close to the source
as possible,” the group said.

The EcoWaste Coalition requested Ambassador Han Dong-man to raise the matter to the
immediate attention of South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Environment Minister Cho
Myung-rae./ac

Source: Inquirer.net (November 15,2018)

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One of the major problem of our country for a long time is the tons of waste in our
dumping site and as well as the improper waste disposal. This is an issue for a long time and we
don’t have any solutions yet. The improper waste disposal is now affecting our bodies of water
that was supposed to be one of the sources of occupation of some Filipinos. If we continue
contaminate the bodies of water another problem will arise involving the occupation and source
of income of the Filipinos.

The incident that South Korea throws their waste in our country shows that our country
lack controls in checking and monitoring the products that enters our country. This is alarming
that South Korea was able to enter and dump their waste in our country.

For our country that is considered to be low-middle income country and in comparison
with South Korea which is more advance and more economically stable than us, it is not right to
make us their dump site. This shows that South Korea shows no respect to our country. I hope
that this incident will not happen again.

For South Korea, I might say that even though Philippines is a low-middle income
country, they should still respect our country. This is what is lacking not just in our country the
world. And for our government, this should serve as awareness to have a strong and strict
implementation of rules and regulations on accepting goods from other country.