Patricia Kombo, from IPEN's participating organization in Kenya, the Centre for Environmental Justice And Development (CEJAD), wrote an editorial for the Nairobi Standard about the ongoing chemical convention talks in Geneva. She notes a key question at the talks "should be on limiting the use of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in waste to protect human health and the environment."
The COVID-19 pandemic has already had negative effects on waste management, significantly contributing to increases in medical waste and household waste, and a substantial slowdown in recycling efforts. This upsurge in hazardous waste particularly endangers developing countries that are destinations for waste exports via the global waste trade.
While governments of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have individually taken action to address incidents of illegal waste shipments from affluent and more developed countries, the 10-member bloc has yet to unify and boost up efforts to protect the region from the drawbacks and hazards of the global waste trade.
Released in time for the commemoration of the ASEAN Month, the report titled “Waste Trade in Southeast Asia: Legal Justifications for Regional Action” notes the lack of a common and regional response to the waste trade issue despite headline-grabbing dumping controversies that hit Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand in recent years.
Published by the environmental health and justice group EcoWaste Coalition with the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN), the report finds the current legal and policy responses inadequate to stop the entry of illegal waste, and more importantly, insufficient to protect the health of both people and the environment.
Bales of Italian waste exported to Tunisia by Sviluppo Risorse Ambientali photographed during a visit by Tunisian legislators and journalists to the port of Sousse in December 2020 (Credits: Hamdi Chebaane)
Demand for the EU and Italy to Ensure Wastes are Returned Immediately
Wednesday, 03 March 2021
Press Release from Réseau Tunisie Verte - Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) - Basel Action Network (BAN) - Zero Waste Europe (ZWE) - European Environmental Bureau (EEB) - Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) - Greenpeace MENA - Rethink Plastic alliance (RPa) - International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN)
Groups pursue ban on waste trade as the first anniversary of the re-exportation of Canadian garbage dumped in the Philippines on May 31 nears
Thursday, 28 May 2020
Quezon City, Philippines Civil society groups marked the first anniversary of the repatriation of 69 container vans of rotting Canadian garbage to their source with a resounding plea for decisive policy actions to prevent its recurrence and to defend environmental justice and the rule of law.
Over 5,000 tons of illegal waste imports from South Korea to be shipped back on January 19 and February 9
Saturday, 11 January 2020
Davao City/Quezon City The impending re-exportation of illegal waste shipments from South Korea, described by the authorities as “misdeclared, heterogenous and injurious to public health,” has been welcomed by green groups who say it will help in rectifying the environmental injustice committed against Mindanao and the entire Filipino nation.
Jakarta, Indonesia The international waste trade watchdog organization Basel Action Network (BAN) together with Indonesian environmental organizations Ecoton, WALHI, and Nexus3 today in calling the waste import situation in Indonesia dire and "out-of-control" which can only be resolved by the Indonesian Government dealing more responsibly with the illegal shipments that have already arrived at their shores, while enacting a full prohibition on future imports.
