Philippine authorities alerted of alleged illegal US e-waste shipments

MANILA, Philippines – Philippine authorities have been alerted at least 10 times of the entry of illegal e-waste imports into the country since March 2025, according to the US-based nonprofit organization Basel Action Network (BAN).

The e-waste shipments that reportedly entered the Philippines were exported by companies from the United States, according to BAN’s alerts. The containers allegedly left the ports in Los Angeles, Savannah, New York, Atlanta, Norfolk, Oakland, and Newark, with Subic as the port of destination.

The latest alert to the Bureau of Customs (BOC) was dated January 21, warning of 24 containers containing suspected illegal e-waste from the United States in the coming days.

In BAN’s communication with the BOC, the bureau said a regional trial court in Manila had ruled that the environment department cannot legally require importers to obtain a pre-shipment importation clearance. The ruling restricted the BOC from conducting seizures.

“Hence, the Bureau is restricted from apprehending the subject goods unless the decision has been reversed,” the BOC’s letter dated September 3, 2025, read.

The Manila RTC, in April 2025, upheld that the Subic Special Economic Zone should be operated as a separate customs territory. The RTC made the injunction permanent, allowing three private e-waste importers who were petitioners in the case “to immediately and unconditionally proceed with their business” unimpeded and within the bounds of the law.

Under the environment department’s order (DAO 2013-22), electronic assemblies and scraps may be imported provided that they do not have certain components or are not contaminated by constituents such as cadmium, mercury, lead, or polychlorinated biphenyl.

The group, which aims to act as a watchdog for the Basel Convention, has alerted not only the Philippines but also authorities in other Southeast Asian countries, such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources was also alerted about the alleged illegal shipments.

Jim Puckett, executive director of BAN, explained to Rappler the group’s method: “BAN uses various means to monitor and track illegal e-waste shipments from the US to developing countries, including placing US recyclers under surveillance, planting GPS trackers into electronic equipment and placing them into the e-waste takeback events or locations, or using publicly available data.”

A pending ban for the Philippines to ratify

The transboundary movement of hazardous wastes is regulated by an international treaty called the Basel Convention, which was adopted in 1989. The international trade of toxic waste between parties to the convention is heavily regulated.

The Philippines ratified the original convention in 1993 and implements the treaty through Republic Act No. 9696. However, the country has yet to ratify the amendments to the convention, which include the ban on hazardous waste exports from developed to developing countries.

“The Philippine government must urgently ratify the Basel Ban Amendment to end the country’s vulnerability to waste colonialism and the injustices of the global waste trade,” Marian Ledesma from Greenpeace Philippines told Rappler.

The trade of hazardous wastes between non-parties and parties is prohibited in the convention, except when there is a separate agreement between countries that follow the convention’s standards for environmentally sound management of wastes. In this case, the Philippines is a party to the Basel Convention, while the United States has yet to ratify it.

Rappler sought the BOC’s comment in early January and followed up twice in the same month and on February 9, but has yet to receive a response. Rappler also sought the comment of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority in January, but received no response.

The alerts sent to Philippine authorities are part of a larger scheme to promote the Basel Convention. A report from BAN released in October 2025 documented 10 US companies that facilitate e-waste imports to developing countries.

BAN estimated that $204 million worth of e-waste exports are moving from the United States to developing countries every month. These companies misdeclare the exports to avoid regulatory scrutiny, according to the report. – Rappler.com