By Canadian Press

Activists ask Trudeau to act as Canadian trash continues to rot in Manila

Jan 30, 2019 | 1:03 PM

OTTAWA — More than 100 community and environment groups in the Philippines are making a plea to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to take out Canada’s trash.

Calling themselves the EcoWaste Coalition, the groups are writing to Trudeau asking him to make good on his promise made 13 months ago to address more than two million kilograms of Canadian household and electronic waste rotting in two Filipino ports for nearly six years.

The waste was labelled as recycling plastics and shipped to the Philippines in 2013 and 2014, but has sat in limbo since Filipino customs inspectors determined the containers were actually filled with debris from Canadian trash bins.

In November 2017 — about a year after Filipino courts ordered the importer to send the garbage back to Canada — Trudeau said it was “theoretically” possible to repatriate the trash.

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A working group of Filipino officials and Canadian embassy workers in Manila is just now getting underway to figure out how to make that happen.

However, the activists note it took South Korea just a few months to haul its garbage back after a similar mistake was made by a South Korean company last year.

The Canadian Press