ASEAN steps up to stop junk imports

Manila returns garbage to Ottawa as official says the nation is 'not a landfill'

After shipping back garbage containers to advanced economies, Southeast Asian nations are fighting with legal and commercial means to reject being treated as the garbage backyard of wealthier nations.

The Philippine Congress, which convened on July 22, has discussed a bill that seeks to ban all garbage imports. The move came after the archipelago country returned 69 containers of waste to Canada.