The Canadian trash that sat rotting in a port in the Philippines for six years causing a diplomatic row, is now back in Canada.
The Anna Maersk docked at Deltaport near the Tsawwassen ferry terminal early Saturday morning, carrying all 69 containers.
The garbage is destined for an incineration facility in Burnaby that will turn the trash into electricity.
There’s about 1,500 tons of waste in the containers that needs to be disposed of.
“In a year, the waste energy facility processes about 250,000 tons of waste and converts that into electricity,” said Metro Vancouver Solid Waste Services general manager, Paul Henderson.
That’s enough power for about 1,600 homes.
Henderson said 1,500 tons of garbage coming from the Philippines would normally take about "two days" to dispose of, but it could take up to 10 days to get rid of because they plan to spread it around with other garbage to ensure normal operations aren't disrupted.
CTV News took a tour of Waste-to-Energy Facility earlier this month and saw how the entire process works.
The operation is “unique” and a bit of a challenge because the trash will be arriving in shipping containers about 15 meters long, explained Henderson.
"Those containers need to be effectively tipped on their end so the material can come out of the containers."
Premier John Horgan weighed Saturday saying this is a federal responsibility.
“That pile of garbage is now here in British Columbia and we’ll be working with the federal government to ensure that it’s disposed of appropriately.”
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Canada has been exporting waste for years, explained Jamie Kaminski with Zero Waste Canada.
"Our federal government has to step up to the plate," said Kaminski. "They’ve been letting municipalities piecemeal this together for years pretty much forever, so one thing they can do is restrict the exporting waste out of Canada."
Environment Minister Catherine McKenna blamed the former administration Tuesday.
"The previous government did not have proper regulations in place to address situations like this…we changed that. We amended our laws so it won’t happen again."
In an email statement to CTV News Vancouver, the head of Greenpeace's oceans and plastics campaign said she is "glad" to see the plastic waste has come back to Canada.
"The situation with the Philippines is a stark reminder of what’s wrong with Canada’s approach to plastic waste," Sarah King said.
"Canada produces and consumes too much plastic, can’t recycle it, lacks plastic industry oversight, offloads the waste problem elsewhere, and then is left to burn it or landfill it, creating more pollution and problems."
The garbage left June 1 and was transferred onto the Anna Maersk on June 8 in Taiwan. It was originally shipped to the Philippines in 2013 and 2014 by an Ontario company that’s since been dissolved, and falsely labelled as plastics for recycling.
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte had originally given Canada until May 15 to get the containers on a ship or else he planned to ship it back himself.
"Prepare a grand reception," he said at the time. "Eat it if you want to."
"On top of the diplomatic mess that it created, it’s also a waste of resources and it’s going to cost a lot of money because incineration is expensive," said Vito Buonsante, an environmental policy professor at McMaster University.
"I think we can do much better," he said, calling what a Canadian business did, by shipping waste from a developed country to a developing nation, "disgraceful."
The price tag for the shipping is $1.14 million and to burn the trash in the Metro Vancouver incinerator, it will cost $375,000.
With files from The Canadian Press
