OTTAWA – The president of the Philippines says if Canada doesn’t take back tonnes of trash within the next week he will “declare war” and ship the containers back himself.

Filipino media outlets are reporting that Rodrigo Duterte made threats Tuesday about dozens of shipping containers filled with Canadian household and electronic garbage that has been rotting in a port near Manila for nearly six years.

More than 100 of the containers were shipped to Manila by a Canadian company in 2013 and 2014, improperly labelled as plastics for recycling.

Customs inspectors discovered they actually contained garbage, including soiled adult diapers and kitchen trash.

A Filipino environmentalist joins a demonstration in front of the Senate building in protest of garbage imported from Canada, in Pasay city, south of Manila, Philippines, 9 September 2015.

Canada has been trying for nearly six years to convince the Philippines to dispose of the garbage there even though a Filipino court ordered the trash returned to Canada in 2016.

Last week a British Columbia lawyer said in a legal brief that Canada is in violation of the international Basel Convention, which forbids developed nations from sending their toxic or hazardous waste to developing nations without informed consent.

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