Canada hires firm to return garbage from Philippines

OTTAWA — The federal government is spending more than $1 million to ship 2,000 tonnes of rotting garbage back to Canada from the Philippines, hoping to bring an end to the diplomatic war over waste.

Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said Wednesday the government signed a contract for $1.14 million with the Canadian arm of French shipping giant Bollare Logistics, to prepare and ship 69 containers of Canadian trash that has been sitting in the ports of Subic and Manila in the Philippines for up to six years.

McKenna said the waste must be treated to meet Canadian safety and health requirements. A recent inspection of the containers by the Philippines found all but one of the containers was seaworthy.

The 69 containers are the remainder from 103 shipped by a private Canadian company to the Philippines in 2013 and 2014 and labelled improperly as plastics for recycling.