‘Remaining SoKor trash shipped back next month’

The remaining 5,177 tons of assorted plastic waste from South Korea will be returned to the point of origin next month.

In a letter to environmental group EcoWaste Coalition dated Aug. 6, the South Korean embassy said “authorities have been discussing the detailed procedure for the repatriation of garbage with the Philippine Bureau of Customs (BOC).”

“We will have to wait for the results of the discussion, but it seems that the waste is expected to be returned to Korea in September 2019,” the letter read.

EcoWaste wrote the South Korean embassy on Aug. 2 to expedite the re-export of the trash that arrived at the Mindanao International Container Terminal in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental last year.

The BOC had earlier said the remaining garbage shipment was supposed to be returned to South Korea last June 30. At least 1,500 metric tons of garbage, also from South Korea, were shipped back to its point of origin last January.

Both shipments, which were misdeclared as synthetic plastic flakes, arrived in the Philippines on July 21 and Oct. 20 last year.

“We welcome this important... information from the South Korean embassy, which is a good indication that the overstaying wastes will be gone soon and will not suffer the fate of the infamous garbage from Canada that sailed back to its source after six years following a diplomatic crisis,” Aileen Lucero, EcoWaste national coordinator, said.

“We hope that the vessel that will bring the wastes... back to South Korea will be identified and dispatched sooner as they are ready to be picked up anytime,” Lucero said.