A new poll suggests nearly 80 per cent of Canadians believe the country should handle its own waste instead of shipping it overseas, regardless of cost.

Nanos Research, commissioned by CTV News, surveyed 1,000 Canadians and found 79 per cent believe Canada should manage and dispose of its own waste and recycling, while 18 per cent believe it is OK to export garbage elsewhere.

Quebecers were most likely to agree with Canada handling its own waste (85 per cent), while people from the Prairies were least likely to agree with the statement (74 per cent).

A few weeks ago, diplomatic tensions between Canada and the Philippines came to a head as 69 container ships of Canadian garbage -- including diapers and electrical waste -- were finally returned to Canada after rotting at a port in the Philippines since 2013. The garbage is expected to arrive in Canada later this week.

The Malaysian government has called the practice of richer countries shipping their garbage to poorer nations “grossly unfair” and announced a plan to send back 3,000 metric tons of waste back to where it came from, including some from Canada.

Some environmental experts in Canada have suggested banning the shipment of garbage overseas following the diplomatic fallout.

Methodology

Nanos conducted an RDD dual frame (land- and cell-lines) hybrid telephone and online random survey of 1,000 Canadians, 18 years of age or older, between May 31st and June 4th, 2019 as part of an omnibus survey. Participants were randomly recruited by telephone using live agents and administered a survey online. The sample included both land- and cell-lines across Canada. The results were statistically checked and weighted by age and gender using the latest Census information and the sample is geographically stratified to be representative of Canada.

Individuals randomly called using random digit dialing with a maximum of five call backs.

The margin of error for this survey is ±3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.