Canada introduced new regulations in 2016 requiring exporters to get permits to ship waste other countries would consider hazardous, including trash. The changes were the result of the diplomatic dustup with the Philippines over 103 containers of trash that arrived in ports there in 2013 and 2014 wrongly labelled as plastics for recycling.
This latest garbage embarrassment is shining new light on what Greenpeace Canada calls the "myth of recycling." "The curtain has been pulled back or the wool's been pulled off our eyes and we now see that 'Oh my gosh this is totally not working the way that we thought it was working' and we are contributors to a big problem," he said. "We are a global pariah as a result of exporting our contaminated plastic to less-developed countries. It's shameful."
Statistics Canada reports the country exported 44,800 tonnes of plastic waste in 2018, much of it to the United States. Once waste goes to the U.S. it is not tracked to determine what happens to it in the end. Brooks said plastics that originate in Canada are often mixed with American waste and then shipped to Asia.
The issue has become particularly bad since China, once the world's largest importer of recycling plastics, slammed its doors to the materials last year. China found it was disposing more than it was recycling because the materials arriving in its ports were often too contaminated with food waste and non-recyclables to be useful.
The question we have to ask is were there any permits issued for recyclables. Waste shipped as recyclables would not show up as waste permits.
The plot thickens
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