Trash

WRITTEN BY JOHN RAFAEL AMBAG

ILLUSTRATED BY JON BONIFACIO

“BAAAAAAAAA BYE, as we say it,” retorts Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin as M/V Bavaria left Subic Bay carrying 69 container vans with approximately 2,400 tons of trash from Canada last May 31. The shipment served as a temporary conclusion between the diplomatic dispute of Philippines and Canada triggered by the six-year stay of illegally shipped Canadian trash in Philippine soil.

The Philippine-Canadian garbage dispute began in 2013 as 103 containers containing falsely declared recyclable plastic scraps arrived in the country. The said trash hid from headlines until 2016, once a court ruling established the import of such trash as illegal. Shortly, Canada responded that such shipments were privately sanctioned without the government’s consent and promised to take the necessary measures to ensure the safe transport of scraps. The issue died out.

In 2019, an outraged Duterte grew tired of waiting, electing to force feed the shipments to Canada, and threatened to declare war if they refuse. With a deadline in place, Canada was able to comply and here we are. Once again, with the issue seemingly dissipating, one must remember that such instances are not just accidents, they are part of a global issue.

Nowadays, with the exponential boom of production from different flocks of the world, raw materials and manufactured products are not the only things involved in trades between countries. With excess production in place, consumption is inevitable, giving birth to the garbage trade. It is common practice for developed nations such as the United States, Australia, South Korea, and countries from the European Union to export their trash elsewhere for recycling. Among these countries, the US is the largest exporter. In 2018, it shipped 78% of its waste — 157,000 containers of trash and scraps, to developing countries with known waste mismanagement issues, resulting in imminent pollution and environmental degradation for such countries.

Before 2018, these developed nations are indebted to China for their waste processing. The country took responsibility for almost half of the world’s plastic waste. In fact, in 2012, Greenpeace reported that the country imported a record nine million tons of trash. The said practice, which amassed boatloads of cash, proved to be unsustainable for their environment due to mismanagement practices, pushing China to cut ties with the trade and ban the import of trash from different parts of the world.

China’s decision heavily affected the US, which exports a third of its scraps to foreign countries. Lacking a recipient for their waste, massive loads of plastic and paper piled up in recycling facilities. Inability to process such waste forced authorities to dump them to landfills instead, making the recycling policy futile. Now, with developed countries being stunned of their nanny not wanting to receive their diapers anymore, who picked up the slack?

While the concept of receiving trash from other nations seems disturbing, this failed to stop other countries to step up for China’s absence, giving them the potential to rake in millions to process such wastes. This prompted Southeast Asian nations such as Malaysia, Vietnam, and Thailand to take advantage of the opportunity.

Malaysia currently stands as the top plastic waste importer in the region. In China’s absence in 2018, the country accounted for an incredulous 872,797 tons of waste imports, a 58.72% increase compared to the previous year. Thailand placed second as it hauled 481,381 tons of trash, a drastic 212.0% increase compared to the previous

year, typifying increased efforts to step up for China’s absence. Wrapping up the top three countries is Indonesia with 320,452 tons of waste imports, tantamount to 148.51% increase compared to the previous year.

The Philippines, despite cashing in headlines for international media outlets with its supposed row with Canada, is a newbie, importing only 11,900 tons in 2018 which are measly numbers compared to the aforementioned titans. Nevertheless, the numbers are still 178.88% higher compared to 2017 imports that only amounted to 4,267 tons of trash.

Given China’s absence, developed countries opted to take the practical stance, finding new countries willing to accept their wastes instead of advocating for improvement in their own recycling practices. The plastic trade monopolized by China instead morphed into an open scramble among developing nations for the promise of easy profit amongst their people.

Whilst Malaysia seemed like the victor for the scramble in SEA, Greenpeace Malaysia campaigner Heng Kia Chun indicated that the country became a “dumping ground.” “Even before the China ban, Malaysia struggled to deal with its domestic waste. It has no capacity to handle waste from other countries,” he added.

The plastic trade advocates for the shipment of recyclable plastic, allowing the recipient countries to process such wastes and prevent degradation of their environment. However, this only proves to be a utopian concept as Malaysia is currently struggling with boatloads of imported low-grade scrap such as soiled food packaging, tinted bottles, and single-use plastic bags. These types of waste necessitate complex and expensive processing methods to be recycled, rendering them prone to be dumped into landfills instead.

The storage of such wastes in landfills is not the only problem. Malaysians residing near Kuala Langat already complained of pungent chemical fumes that smelled like “burnt polyester” that can trigger hacking coughs to vulnerable citizens. Truckloads of low-grade scraps are instead being processed in areas surrounded by oil palm plantations and tin walls. The said areas house numerous illegal recycling factories, approximately 50, that sprawled out of the blue with no issuance of government permits. Complaints from citizens forced their government to take action, shutting down 34 illegal recycling plants that popped like mushrooms into existence. This also prompted the country to announce a three-month stoppage for imports. Officials seized up to 17,000 metric tons of waste, which is even larger than the waste imports of the Philippines for 2018. It was to their dismay to know that such waste proved to be irreversibly contaminated and cannot be further recycled, forcing them to dump them into their landfills.

With the China ban in place, the problems mentioned are resultant of Malaysia’s ties to the Asian juggernaut. “The previous government was very supportive of China, so some companies found their way in outside the proper channels,” indicated Sri Umeswara, a consultant for the plastic recycling industry. “Enforcement was lacking. These Chinese guys took advantage. After the election, the whole thing blew up, ” he added.

While Malaysia may have recorded the largest plastic shipments for SEA, it was Thailand that experienced a drastic exponential increase of 212.09% in 2018. The barrage of wastes from foreign players proved to be detrimental to its environment. In its April 22 issue, the Discarded featured Kuchon Umsawat, a farmer that experienced firsthand the toxic effects of the garbage trade. His tilled land is irrigated by a stream adjacent to a recycling factory. Wastes streaming from the factory resulted to his fish pond turning bright orange, contaminated with 14 types of heavy metals and pollutants. His vegetable crops did not survive the onslaught, and he expressed his anxiety of even selling his remaining fruits given the existing pollution. “It’s toxic trash and we are living here,” Umsawat said. “It’s very bad they are doing this to Thailand,” said Umsawat.

In spite of the supposed economic utility provided by the trade, SEA nations proved to be incapable of effectively processing all imported waste. This forced such countries to instead follow China’s path and impose bans for the waste influx.

Zuraida Kamaruddin, the current Malaysian Minister of Housing and Local Government, announced last October 2018 that Malaysia is expected to enforce a ban on plastic waste imports within the next three years and consequently cut issuance of new permits. Months prior, Vietnam also indicated that it would also be revoking issuance of new licenses for

Thailand also chimed in with the restrictions, placing a ban on imports of 432 types of scrap electronics in August 2018. India also followed last March 2019, declaring the ban of all plastic imports to their country. However, Indonesia, the third largest player in the SEA region has yet to provide any announcements regarding its stance on preventing the entry of foreign waste.

The recent diplomatic dispute between Philippines and Canada only helped the issue to achieve more traction. Earlier this year in January, the Philippines also sent back 51 container vans of mixed waste to South Korea comprising plastic and other materials. Malaysia followed suit last April as it shipped back five containers to Spain, and also vouched to continue sending back approximately 3,000 tons of contaminated waste which cannot be recycled by the country. Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad dismissed the garbage trade as “grossly unfair” given the fact that the country already struggles to manage its own waste.

The Philippines will not be stopping from here. After shipping waste back to Canada, it proceeded to dump back 25 tons of plastic waste from Hong Kong. To add, recently received waste from Australia will also be shipped back. This is in spite of the recipient being a local cement company which shall use the plastic to create cement. “No, I don’t give a flying f**k that it is used in making cement. If that is so cement makers should formally import the ingredient so it goes nowhere but to their plants,” Foreign Affairs Secretary Locsin said in a tweet.

Last May 2019, the Philippines’ Department of Environment and Natural Resources already declared its plan of imposing a total ban on waste imports via a department administrative order. “ ‘Yan ang tanging paraan d’yan kasi nagkakaroon ng window eh. Sasabihin lang nila, scrap plastic, because these are the things allowed for importation. Pero pagdating pala d’yan, may misdeclaration,” said Environment Undersecretary for Policy, Planning and International Affairs Jonas Leones.

With developing countries instilling their rights to sovereignty and prioritizing their environment and the health of their people, one can only hope that the garbage trade can dissipate as a thing of the past. The garbage trade, as a practice, is anchored on the practice of recycling. Developed countries espouse recycling programs for their communities as an effort to save the environment. However, they place the burden of processing their waste to developing countries armed with lower regulation standards and a larger workforce, rendering the practice hypocritical.

One may consider recycling as a valiant effort to counter the excess plastic production to prevent environmental degradation. However, is this really the case? A comprehensive study from the team of Geyer and others published in 2017, indicated that for the 6300 megatons of worldwide plastic waste as of 2015, only nine percent are recycled. The remaining 12% of the trash are incinerated, while an astounding 79% are still loaded into landfills or worse, the natural environment. Geyer’s team concluded that given the current rate of production and waste management policies, an estimated 12,000 megatons of plastic waste will lie idle in landfills by the year 2050. With this in mind, the effectiveness of the garbage trade in processing worldwide plastics is nil. The concept of recycling itself does not advocate cutting down waste production. In fact, it can further promote a culture of consumption as consumers tend to justify their waste production by assuming that most of their waste will be recycled anyway.

With bans imposed by developing countries, developed countries that rely on export of waste for recycling procedures abroad are forced to reconsider their methods and address their garbage problem locally instead. Given their economic capital, it can be safely assumed that they have better means to address their own waste in comparison to developing countries who are juggling the problems of poverty, lack of economic and political sovereignty, and a crippled government.

If unsolved, the garbage trade situation is strongly akin to the effects of climate change felt throughout the globe despite the significant imbalance in emissions produced by developed countries compared to developing nations. With developing nations taking a stand, one can only hope that this serves as a call for developed countries to take responsibility for their actions and babysit themselves instead. ●