[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Eichhörnchen

I believe we 'export' a lot of our household refuse to India as well...

Indeed starting with the world's largest ship breaking yard at Alang India.

The shipyards at Alang recycle approximately half of all ships salvaged around the world. It is considered the world's largest graveyard of ships. The yards are located on the Gulf of Khambat, 50 km (31 mi) southeast of Bhavnagar. Large supertankers, car ferries, container ships, and a dwindling number of ocean liners are beached during high tide, and as the tide recedes, hundreds of manual laborers move onto the beach to dismantle each ship, salvaging what they can and reducing the rest to scrap.
The salvage yards at Alang have generated controversy about working conditions, workers' living conditions, and the impact on the environment. One major problem is that despite many serious work-related injuries, the nearest full service hospital is 50 km (31 mi) away in Bhavnagar.

(enlarges) In Pakistan it's much the same: https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2014/11/the-ship-breakers/100859/

A shipyard worker is enveloped in fumes coming off a separating wall he is cutting through with his blowtorch inside the hull of a ship being dismantled in one of the 127 ship-breaking plots in Gaddani, some 40Kms west of Karachi, Pakistan, on July 9, 2012. Gaddani's ship-breaking yards employ some 10,000 workers including welders, cleaners, crane operators and worker supervisors. The yards are one of the largest ship-breaking operations in the world rivaling in size those located in India and Bangladesh. It takes 50 workers about three months to break down a midsize average transport sea vessel of about 40,000 tonnes. The multimillion-dollar ship-breaking industry contributes significantly to the national supply of steel to Pakistani industries. For a six-day working week of hard and often dangerous work handling asbestos,(Note: asbestos related Mesothelioma killed former ship-breaker Steve McQueen -age 50- He blamed breaking up asbestos pipe lagging while a Marine aboard troopships!) heavy metals and PCBs, employees get paid about 300 USD a month of which half is spent on food and rent for run-down rickety shacks near the yards