Philippines president, Rodrigo Duterte, has ordered a private shipping company to send 69 containers of waste back to Canada and leave the containers within Canada’s territorial waters if it refuses to accept the rubbish. According to Canada, the waste, exported to the Philippines between 2013 and 2014, was a commercial transaction done without the government’s consent. The consignments were labelled as containing plastics to be recycled in the Philippines but were filled with a variety of rubbish including nappies, newspapers and water bottles. Canada had already agreed to take the rubbish back and the two countries were in the process of arranging the transfer. But, Canada missed a 15 May deadline set by Manila to take back the shipment, prompting the Philippines to withdraw top diplomats from Canada last week. Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo, has argued that “the Philippines as an independent sovereign nation must not be treated as trash by other foreign nations.”

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The Guardian