THE 1,400 tons of trash stored at the Mindanao Container Port Terminal in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental, will now be shipped back to South Korea, Misamis Oriental 2nd district Rep. Juliette Uy reported on Sunday, January 13.
During the shipping-out ceremony Sunday for the 51 containers of South Korean trash, Uy thanked the Government of South Korea, the officials of the Bureau of Customs, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Phividec, civil society and the environment groups who “swiftly” addressed the waste management issue.
Uy said she will oppose any proposal to recycle the garbage from South Korea.
A previous report quoted Misamis Oriental Governor Yevgeny Emano as saying he was considering the recycling of the waste and turning it into plastic chairs through the Villar Sipag Foundation of Senator Cynthia Villar.
According to Uy, the government should also make sure that the remaining 5,000 metric tons of garbage still stored at the MICT are shipped back to South Korea.
The Bureau of Customs earlier said the 5,000 metric tons of garbage will be transported back to South Korea on or before the end of this month.
To recall, the said shipment arrived at the Mindanao International Container Terminal (MICT) last July 2018 aboard the vessel MV Affluent Ocean.
Uy said she will “pursue accountability and address problems in our government policy, operations, and procedures that allow the importation of all solid waste.”
“I see the need to adopt new stringent policies to prevent the importation of plastic and other types of waste, since we do not want our province and our whole country for that matter to become a global garbage dump,” Uy also said. (SunStar Philippines)