TED ALJIBE/Getty Images Workers segregate garbage at the Material Recovery Facility near Manila on Feb. 21, 2013. The sorted recyclable materials are sifted by machine shredder which are then compacted, and wrapped with plastic and convert them into bales, where they are bought by companies to be used as alternative burning fuel.

OTTAWA — Canada will not sign on to an amendment to an international treaty that could bar three dozen countries from shipping any kind of garbage, even recyclables, to the developing world.

The amendment to the Basel Convention that puts limitations on shipments of hazardous waste was proposed more than 20 years ago but has resurfaced in Canada recently as scores of shipping containers with rotting Canadian garbage sit in ports in the Philippines.

The 103 containers were sent to Manila in 2013 and 2014 labelled as plastics for recycling but Filipino authorities discovered they actually contained household waste including adult diapers, food and electronics.