The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) bats for the ratification of the Basel Ban Amendment prohibiting the export of hazardous waste and other trash from developed to developing countries.
DENR Secretary Sampulna said the Basel Ban Amendment would address the illegal traffic of imported hazardous waste into the Philippines. “In previous years, we have strongly fought against the import of hazardous wastes from countries who regarded our country as their dumpsites. Ratifying the Basel Ban Amendment will protect the Philippines from being a destination of hazardous wastes again,” he added.
In 2019, the DENR’s Environmental Management Bureau successfully worked for the return of 69 international container units of mixed wastes to Canada, which were illegally imported to the Philippines after being declared as waste plastics for recycling.
The DENR-EMB, in cooperation with the Bureau of Customs, also repatriated 6,400 metric tons of mixed wastes in Misamis Oriental to South Korea in 2020. Rio N. Araja
The Basel Ban Amendment, adopted by the parties to the Basel Convention, would restrain the member-states of the European Union, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and Liechtenstein from exporting hazardous wastes either for recovery, treatment or disposal to developing countries or countries with economies in transition.
The Philippines was party to the 1989 Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal.
The treaty was ratified by Congress on Oct. 21, 1993, and entered into force on Jan. 19, 1994, but the country has yet to ratify the Basel Ban Amendment.
Those in the Ban Amendment included those listed in Annex I, Annex II and Annex VIII (List A) of the Basel Convention, such as used lead-acid batteries, electrical and electronic equipment and metal-bearing sludge.
Non-OECD countries, such as the Philippines, are allowed to export hazardous wastes to OECD countries if it has no existing capacity to treat and dispose the specific hazardous waste in an environmentally sound manner.