• The president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, has said that he will declare war on Canada if it does not take back tons of trash that a Canadian company illegally shipped to the Philippines between 2013 and 2014.
• Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to deal with the trash multiple times over the years, but has not followed through.

Duterte Threatens Trash War

Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to declare war on Canada on Tuesday if the country does not take back tons of trash that a Canadian company shipped to the capital city Manila.

“I want a boat prepared. I’ll give a warning to Canada maybe next week that they better pull that thing out or I will set sail,” Duterte told officials during a press briefing. “We’ll declare war against them.”

“I will advise Canada that your garbage is on the way. Prepare a grand reception. Eat it if you want to,” said the president.

Duterte’s threat is undoubtedly extreme, but this is not a new issue. In fact, the trash that he is referring to was actually shipped to the Philippines years ago.

According to CNN Philippines, between 2013 and 2014, a Canadian company called Chronic Plastics, Inc. shipped a total of 103 containers with 2,450 tons of trash to Manila.

The containers were labeled as carrying plastic scraps for recycling, but inspectors in the Philippines discovered that the contents of the containers were not recyclable at all.

According to the Philippines News Agency, the official news agency of the Philippine government, the containers were found to have “non-recyclable plastics, household wastes and used adult diapers.”

To make matters even more complicated, the Philippine government has said that the containers were shipped illegally because Chronic Plastics, Inc. did not get import clearances before shipping the trash to Manila. This essentially means they just sent the trash there without permission.

Canadian Response

The Canadian Embassy in Manila responded to the threat in a statement, writing, “Canada is strongly committed to collaborating with the Government of the Philippines to resolve this issue.”

The Embassy also said that officials from both countries were “examining the full spectrum of the issues related to the removal of the waste with a view to a timely resolution.”

However, this is not the first time Canada has promised to deal with the trash, and Philippine officials have filed multiple diplomatic protests with Canada over the last few years. During the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Manila in 2015, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said a “Canadian solution was being developed” to deal with the trash.

However, there was no follow through, which prompted a Philippine court in 2016 to order that the trash be sent back to Canada at the importer’s expense.

The next time Trudeau went to the Philippines for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-Canada Summit in 2017, he again made the same promise, reportedly telling Duterte that the Canadian government “is very much engaged in finding a solution.”

Again, he failed to follow through, and two years later, there still has been no action on Canada’s part. Canada has argued that the shipment was a commercial transaction that was not backed by the Canadian government, which seems to indicate that the government does not believe that they are responsible for the repatriation of the trash.

Violation of International Law

On April 17, a Canadian law firm called Pacific Centre for Environmental Law and Litigation (CELL) said that Canada broke international law by dumping the shipping containers.

CELL argued that Canada violated the Basel Convention, which is a treaty that prevents the shipping of hazardous waste to developing countries without their express consent.

The Basel Convention also prohibits the shipment of waste that is falsely labeled. According to one of the lawyers of CELL, the containers should have been sent back to Canada within 30 days after the Canadian government was made aware that they had been shipped.

Canada has claimed that the convention did not apply at the time the shipments were made because the Philippines did not consider the waste to be hazardous, or at least did not tell the Canadian government they believed it was.

However, this seems to contradict Canadian policy that has since been implemented. In 2016, Canada amended its own regulations around hazardous waste so the situation would not happen again.

Under the new regulations, waste can be sent back to Canada if the country receiving it believes it is hazardous, even if Canada does not.

Is Duterte Serious?

Whether or not the situation will be solved anytime soon remains to be seen. However, the biggest unanswered question is: is Duterte be serious?

In the video of his briefing, he seems casual, and people are laughing. According to the Philippines News Agency, on Wednesday Philippine Senator Aquilino Pimentel, who supported Duterte’s call for Canada to take the trash back, seemed to dismiss the severity of the claim.

“The war declaration, of course, it was an exaggeration,” said Pimentel, “But that means that Canada must seriously act on the waste they have dumped into our country.”

This kind of grandstanding is not uncommon with Duterte, who is known for using threatening rhetoric to get his way.

However, at the same time, he also has a history of violence. International leaders and human rights organizations have criticized Duterte or his so-called “War on Drugs,” which has to lead to the execution of estimated tens of thousands of Filipino’s since he was elected in 2016.

This is also not the first time he has clashed with Trudeau and Canada. Just last year, Duterte ordered the Philippine military to cancel a $233 million deal to buy 16 helicopters from Canada after the Canadian government said they were concerned the helicopters could be used to fight rebels. Duterte has also lashed out against Trudeau for his comments criticizing his “War on Drugs.”

The Global Trash Market

Regardless, this incident between the Philippines and Canada should act as a push for countries that export a lot of waste to find more sustainable solutions to waste disposal. Last year, China introduced a ban on “foreign garbage” as part of a move to upgrade its industries and reduce environmental damage.

As a result, trash has been sent to developing countries. According to BBC, the amount of plastic imported by China dropped 94 percent between 2016 to 2017 and 2017 to 2018. That trash, in turn, was taken in by Malaysia, Turkey, Poland, and Indonesia.

The global waste sector is an enormous market. According to the United Nations, the global waste market, which includes everything from collection and recycling, is estimated to be $410 billion.

See what others are saying: (BBC) (Reuters) (Global News)