How Canadian recycling could be fuelling pollution in India

In October 2021, a Belgian environmental inspector opened a container at the port of Antwerp that, according to its manifest, was supposed to contain bales of mixed paper waste from Canada.

It was one of 20 containers from the Saint-Michel recycling centre in Montreal that were destined for India.

"Oh it really stinks!" said Marc de Strooper, taken aback by the stench of garbage.

As he looked closer, de Strooper found a mess of broken glass, old clothes, metal debris, broken toys and used medical masks. He also saw paper bales that contained a large quantity of difficult-to-recycle plastic bags.

"Canada is known as a beautiful country with lots of nature lovers. I don't understand how they can produce garbage like this," de Strooper said. He stopped the containers from moving on to their destination and they still sit at the port.

Canada has become one of the biggest exporters of recyclable paper to India — with Quebec and the city of Montreal sending much of their mixed paper waste to that country.

An investigation by Radio-Canada's Enquête shows that much of what is supposed to be paper actually contains tonnes of plastic bags, some of which litter the Indian landscape, and are often burned as a source of fuel.

Rules around the international plastic waste trade were tightened a few years after China closed its borders to most foreign recycling in 2018.

That waste then flooded countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. It caused a series of scandals and those nations severely restricted plastic imports.

Canadian companies still export large amounts of mixed paper that are often contaminated with plastic. Some appear to ignore international plastic restrictions — with few penalties when they are caught.

Over the last five years, 123 paper-and-plastic bales were returned to Canada because they did not meet standards, yet the federal government has only issued six warning letters.

India, with lax inspection in some of its ports and a huge appetite for paper fibre, has become an attractive destination for Canadian recycling, with roughly 500,000 tonnes of mixed paper bales exported there between April 2019 and 2021.

By law, these bales can include junk mail, office paper and paperboard packaging. Although Indian rules say they can have only two per cent contamination, some of the bales entering are stuffed with large amounts of hard-to-recycle plastic.

The city of Montreal is considered among the worst offenders when it comes to shipping off contaminated bales of paper.