Canada says efforts underway to bring its garbage back from the Philippines

After the president of the Philippines engaged in some serious trash-talk with Canada and threatened to “declare war” over a garbage shipment, Global Affairs Canada has now confirmed that action is being taken to bring the garbage home.

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“We have made a formal offer to the Philippines to quickly bring the waste back to Canada for disposal,” a Global Affairs spokesperson told Daily Hive. “We await their response.”

The situation all began last week, in which the president of the Philippines voiced his displeasure with the shipment of illegal garbage that ended up in Manila five years ago.

According to a report from ABS-CBN News, the country’s president, Rodrigo Duterte, made the threat during a briefing held following a large earthquake in Luzon on Monday.

“I want a boat prepared. I’ll give a warning to Canada maybe next week that they better pull that thing out or I will set sail doon sa Canada, ibuhos ko ‘yang basura nila doon (I’ll pour their garbage there),” Duterte is quoted as saying. “We’ll declare war against them.”

Duterte’s comments reportedly relate to a massive amount of waste from Canada – 103 containers of it in total – which ended up in Manila between 2013 and 2014.

In a 2017 visit to the Philippines, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he “discussed the garbage issue ” with Duterte, according to the report. “I am happy to commit to you all now that Canada is very much engaged in finding a solution on that.”