50 Containers Of Canadian Trash In Philippines

The above picture is linked to a petition on Change.org started by Philippine resident Ms Kapunan who is petitioning the Canadian Government because 50 - 40ft. containers of garbage was shipped to her country by an Ontario company.

The shipping containers are filled with used plastic bags, bottles, newspaper, household garbage and even adult diapers. The containers, in the words of the petition are leaking 'juice' and presenting a health and environmental hazard for her country.

The petition is aimed at members of the Canadian government, but I would assume her own nation needs to do what China finally did by putting up their 'green wall' to stop North American 'recyclers' from shipping useless trash under the guise of recyclable materials.

Is this just another example of how the west is diverting trash from our landfills and recycling junk by shipping it to other countries so they can deal with it?

An article in the Toronto Star says the owner of the Canadian company denies his company shipped garbage instead of plastic to the Philippines where he has a recycling company set up to sort plastics which in fact came from a company in Vancouver.

The company owner claims his first 30 containers went through without incident and he is pleading ignorance as to how this has happened.

The Star reveals some interesting facts about the recycling business. The material an Ontario based company is buying, comes from a Vancouver company and is shipped via container to the Phillipines at a cost of $80/tonne (claimed by the company owner) where it is sorted and then shipped to someone else for actual recycling.

What do you suppose happens with the plastic that hits the Philippines that can't be recycled? How much money is being spent moving plastic which apparently has nearly no commercial value through a number of hands before it winds up in the Philippines, or India or Vietnam or China?

Recycling? Really?