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We smug Canadians are garbage — literally — when it comes to dealing with our own trash.

We’re the embarrassing hypocrites who preach the gospel of recycling — and then close our eyes to what happens to all that trash.

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As homeowners, we dutifully sort: Plastics in the blue bin; compostables in the green one.

You put black plastic in the recycling bin? For shame. A rookie mistake — it’s garbage.

And what do we do with all that detritus? Why, we ship it around the world. China, India, the Philippines — anywhere, so long as we don’t have to deal with it ourselves.

Photo by Bullit Marquez / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Our trash recently became an international shame, when the Philippines threatened to declare war on us over more than 2,000 tonnes of non-recyclable garbage shipped there by a private company several years ago.

Canada will now pay more than $1 million to retrieve the 69 containers. And that’s a lot of cash for loaded diapers.

Toronto, particularly, has obstinately refused to deal with its garbage.