A trash can for the US’: anger in Mexico and Canada over toxic waste shipments

Exclusive: US companies are increasingly shipping toxic waste to other countries, where some argue it poses a risk

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Erin McCormick, Guardian US, and Verónica García de León, Quinto Elemento Lab
Wed 15 Jan 2025 13.00 CET
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US companies ship more than 1m tons of hazardous waste to other countries each year, raising questions over possible impacts on health and the environment, an investigation by the Guardian and Quinto Elemento Lab has found.

Exports of toxic waste, most of which is shipped to Mexico and Canada, have climbed 17% since 2018, US records show. And while sending it away for recycling and disposal is legal, some experts are concerned that more and more of America’s most dangerous discards are leaving the country.

In the Monterrey metropolitan area in Mexico, the investigation has uncovered high levels of lead, cadmium, and arsenic in homes and schools around a plant that recycles toxic dust produced by the US steel industry. Other huge quantities of waste go to Mexico to battery-recycling plants that experts worry are fouling the air and exposing workers to dangerous heavy metals.

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