Some 1,200 metric tons of plastic waste shipped back to Korea from the
Philippines in January and 3,400 tons of waste stopped from illegally
being exported are to be incinerated starting Wednesday.
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(Yonhap-Greenpeace) |
The
Pyongtaek city government will send the unrecyclable garbage currently
held at Pyeongtaek Port to four Gyeonggi-area private incineration
facilities.
Environment Minister Cho Myung-rae is set to visit
the port for an on-site inspection on Wednesday to oversee the process,
according to the ministry.
The processing of the waste, expected
to take one to two months, will cost the municipality an estimated 1
billion won ($876,000).
The first batch of the plastic waste,
which a Korean company had illegally exported to the Philippines as
reusable plastic material in July last year, arrived at the port in
early February amid international criticism.
The company falsely
declared the waste as recyclable “plastic synthetic flakes” to obtain
approval for export to the Philippines, but the waste consisted of
various unrecyclable items, including plastic straws, used diapers and
electronic waste.
The Philippine customs office demanded the
Korean government take back the waste after it identified containers
filled with garbage in Mindanao in November. Seoul agreed to repatriate
it in late December.
With the company refusing the ministry’s
request to take back the waste, the Korean government paid for the
garbage to be brought to the Korean port. The Environment Ministry plans
to charge the company for the expenses, it said.
Seoul is
currently consulting with Manila to decide when and how to take back the
remaining 5,100 tons of waste, which are being held at the Mindanao
International Container Terminal in Misamis Oriental province, according
to the ministry.
Much of the world’s unrecyclable plastics are
flocking to Southeast Asia after China banned the import of plastic
waste. Dumping plastic waste in Southeast Asia, where regulations are
relatively lax, is cheaper than processing it here.