Customs Seize Contaminated E-Waste Shipments from Hong Kong

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The Bureau of Customs in Northern Mindanao (BOC-10) announced that tons of electronic waste and other forms of trash have been intercepted at the the Mindanao Container Terminal (MCT) sub-port in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental. This is the first such shipment to enter the Philippines from Hong Kong. It must be noted that several illegal e-waste shipments were discovered from other countries such as Canada, South Korea and Australia.

According to Philippines Customs, the cargo was shipped by Hong Kong-based Hin Yuen Tech. Env. Limited and was consigned to Pasay City-based Crowd Win Industrial Limited. The ship comprised of more than 25,000 kilograms of discarded components of old electronics including computers and cell phones, declared as “assorted electronic accessories”. As per Customs officials, the above mentioned shipment was just a ‘test cargo’. A smooth passage of the first shipment would have triggered arrival of 70 more container vans containing similar e-waste scrap.

Environmental groups denounced the attempts by other countries to make the Philippines a dumping ground of their garbage. EcoWaste Coalition, in a statement, denounced attempts to bring in hazardous garbage into the country. It urged Chinese government to seriously look into the matter.