One Big Dumpsite

Japan dumped into the Philippines 1.2 million second-hand TVs, washing machines, refrigerators and air conditioners in a four-year period under the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA). Most of the electronic garbage conked out in a matter of weeks after being sold in local thrift shops that have mushroomed everywhere like the ukay-ukays selling second-hand shoes and clothes.

Toxic hospital wastes had also been found among the goods “exported” to the Philippines by countries like Japan and now Canada, whose 50 containers of plastic garbage are now rotting in a pier in Manila. Naturally, the city government of Manila wants the garbage shipped back to Canada, saying it exposes its constituents to diseases while posing danger to the surrounding eco-system (read: Manila’s already heavily polluted bay and air).

As it is, our penchant for getting the moment’s “latest and greatest” cellphones, laptops and tablets result to more and more still usable but out of style electronic gadgets being dumped along with the e-garbage from abroad.  But at what expense?

According to the Ban Toxics of the Basel Action Network, the fumes from burning rubber-coated wires   result to children earning a living off dumpsites getting tuberculosis.  A community youth leader, Renalyn Lizano, has said she had brought no less than 200 dumpsite workers to a health center near Pier 18. They were found to be suffering from TB.

The problem with e-garbage is they are mostly non-biodegrable and thus pose health and environmental hazards for decades. Mercury leaking from LCDs of dumped TVs, cellphones, etc. poison the soil and the water table, ditto with the PVC boards of any and all electronic consumer goods at dumpsites.

So, why do we allow other countries to treat the Philippines as one huge dumping ground for their garbage, whatever kind that may be? And why do we treat our country no better with our refusal to recycle or to at least segregate wastes? Why do we not rein in abject consumerism that may support the economy in the short-term but nonetheless has long-term deleterious effect on our health and the ecology?

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