Illegal Canadian trash keeps ending up overseas. And the federal government won't say who's shipping it

The federal government has privately sanctioned several Canadian recycling companies for shipping illegal, unsorted household trash to developing countries, but is keeping the list of names of those caught violating environmental and international laws secret from the public.

A Fifth Estate/Enquête investigation has found that at least 123 shipping containers have been returned to Canada in the past five years after foreign authorities discovered numerous violations of international waste export regulations aimed at stopping Western countries from dumping their trash in developing countries.

"We can't make those names public," Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said in an interview with The Fifth Estate.

Guilbeault said the only time names would be made public is when a company or executive was charged under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act.

Environment Canada told The Fifth Estate/Enquête that in the past five years it issued nine warning letters against companies involved in the shipping of the illegal waste.

In that time, there have also been six fines totalling less than $9,000 against four companies and two individuals. 

According to the regulations, environmental officers may avoid laying charges if they decide a fine or a warning is "sufficient and appropriate" to address a company that has violated the law.

Guilbeault said that because his officials only laid fines, he agrees with Environment Canada's decision not to release the names. 

"We can issue fines, but in terms of communicating this information publicly, there is still in our legal system this provision that you're innocent until proven guilty by a court of law," Guilbeault said.

Marc De Strooper, a Belgian port inspector, told Enquête and The Fifth Estate that throughout his 25-year career, he has repeatedly caught recycling shipments containing illegal trash from Canada. De Strooper inspects shipping containers passing through the port of Antwerp on the way to their final destinations in India and other countries in Asia. 

As recently as January, he caught five illegal recycling shipments coming from Canada that were destined for developing countries.

De Strooper said he believes Canadian companies send their trash to developing countries because it can be cheaper to send it overseas rather than process recycled paper and plastics back home.

For that reason, De Strooper said governments should be more vigilant in preventing the exports of contaminated recycling products.

"I don't know how [Canadian authorities] do these inspections, or how much inspection they do on these items. I still see this waste coming to the port of Antwerp," De Strooper said.