As a consequence, Diana L. Figueroa, president of the Concerned Citizens of Bamban, said trucks towing 40-foot container vans containing imported waste materials from Canada now pass though Bamban to dump waste in the Capas village.
Earlier, Capas Mayor Antonio “TJ” Rodriguez has barred trucks carrying the imported wastes from entering his town.
But another route to the Kalangitan landfill through adjacent Bamban has allowed the trucks to reach the site.
Bamban Mayor Jon Feliciano has reportedly vetoed the said municipal ordinance to the consternation of his constituents. Figueroa said the Philippine government should force Canada to take back its wastes it exported to the country in 2013 instead of dumping it at the sanitary landfill in Kalangitan operated by the Metro Clark Waste Management Corp. (MCWMC) over the last few days.
Figueroa expressed fears that something toxic is contained in the wastes despite the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ (DENR) assurance that the waste is “non-toxic” after conducting an inspection and analysis.
On Nov. 10, 2014 the DENR’s Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) conducted a “waste analysis and characterization study” which said “analyzed samples from three container vans consisted of municipal solid waste or garbage… which cannot be recycled and destined for disposal.”
The report was approved by EMB Director Jonas Leones. But Figueroa said Canada is a developed country and one of the wealthiest in the world. As such, it has modern sanitary landfills or other forms of state-of-the-art wastes disposal technology.
Based on readily available information from the internet, the country has produced 13 Nobel laureates in physics, chemistry and medicine and was ranked fourth worldwide for scientific research quality in a major 2012 survey of international scientists. Canada is also home to the headquarters of a number of global technology firms.
Figueroa asked, “with these facts, why can’t Canada dispose its own everyday municipal wastes in its own backyard armed with its technological know-how and capacity and its tremendous wealth?”
“Definitely, something toxic is contained in their exported wastes,” she said.
Therefore Canada, under the Basel Convention, an international treaty designed to reduce the movements of hazardous wastes between nations and specifically to prevent transfer of hazardous waste from developed to less developed countries, should take back its wastes, she said.
