The Philippines has returned around 1,500 tonnes of what was claimed as being “falsely labelled as plastic recycling waste” back to Canada.
The circa 1,500 tonnes of waste, which was sent to Manila in 2014, will be shipped to Vancouver. It will arrive the end of June and will be treated at a waste-to-energy facility there.
Canada has agreed to cover the full cost of its transfer and disposal, according to reports by the BBC.
Sean Fraser, Canada’s parliamentary secretary to the environment minister, told the BBC, “This is a demonstration that we’re going to comply with our international obligations to deal with waste that originates in Canada.”
He said Canada had moved quickly in recent weeks to deal with the issue, which had dragged on for a number of years after the Philippines government made it “clear this is a very serious priority for them”.
The news comes just days after Malaysia announced it will send back 3,000 tonnes of contaminated waste to countries including the UK, America, Australia and Canada, after sixty shipping containers had been smuggled into illegal processing facilities in the country.