MANILA, Philippines — Environmental health groups on Sunday urged national and local authorities to give priority to zero waste strategies that prevent and reduce the generation of persistent organic pollutants or POPs, a class of highly hazardous synthetic chemicals. This came on the commemoration of the 17th anniversary of the entry into force of the Stockholm Convention on POPs on May 17, 2004. They added that the mere repeal of the incineration ban under the Clean Air Act or Republic Act No. 8749 and the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act or Republic Act No. A living treaty where new POPs are added following rigorous review procedures, the Stockholm Convention started with an initial list of “dirty dozen” POPs.

Source: Philippine Star May 16, 2021 04:18 UTC