ONE OF the achievements that President Duterte trumpeted during his sixth State of the Nation Address on July 26 was the government’s decisive action to re-export tons upon tons of illegal hazardous waste and plastic waste shipments from Canada, Hong Kong and South Korea. But real environmentalists say that was not enough. The government has yet to bring the culprits to justice and fully ban the entry of foreign waste into our borders.
In fact, despite the marching orders given by President Duterte in May 2019 that “the Philippines will no longer accept any waste from any country,” the government has failed to institute two enduring policy measures that will protect the country from becoming a global waste dump. The government has to expedite, not defer, these measures because our country is not a dumpsite.
What are these measures? First is the unfulfilled revision of Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Administrative Order 2013-22, which still allows the importation of recyclable materials with hazardous content, including e-waste, plastic waste and fly ash from coal power plants, subject to certain conditions. And second is the delayed ratification of the Basel Convention Ban Amendment, now an international law, which seeks to protect developing countries from becoming an expedient dumping ground for hazardous waste from developed countries.
Firm policy are needed. Also, while we welcome the closure of 335 open dumpsites across the country, the current government, like the previous ones, has yet to fully meet the other key requirements of the two-decade old Republic Act 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, which could have hugely reduced the volume and toxicity of waste being generated by our households, institutions, businesses and industries, and the mind boggling costs for their disposal. The poor enforcement of the mandatory waste segregation at source, the inefficient composting of biodegradables and the overdue issuance of the list of non-environmentally acceptable products and packaging, including single-use plastics, remain, undermining the efforts of local government units and communities to effectively deal with garbage and all its concomitant problems, including ocean pollution. Instead of focusing its resources in maximizing the potentials of zero waste resource management and clean production, the government is hell-bent in constructing more landfills and in tearing down the ban on waste incineration – a key environmental and sustainability policy enshrined in two major environmental laws (RA 9003 and RA 8749, or the Clean Air Act) – through its persistent pursuit of burn or thermal “waste-to-energy” disposal technologies.
Protecting and preserving the environment is more than lip service. Much more needs to be done. Along with other essential health, environmental, climate, energy and socioeconomic policies and programs, waste prevention measures should also be at the heart of the government’s COVID-19 recovery strategy toward a “better normal” that the Filipinos deserve.
