ISSUE 3 2011
NEWS
“I know it is hard for Customs, because shipping documents are often vague and it is difficult to physically inspect containers, but it needs to be done.”
The shipping and freight industries could also do more to develop awareness of the problem. “People shouldn’t be afraid to highlight it if they feel that problems are occurring. While it wouldn’t entirely solve the problem, even a blacklist of illegal exporters would be a start,” she added. EIA’s report was also critical of the lack of duty of care in
Illegally-shipped electrical waste is ending up on dumps like these in Africa where school-age children risk their health
Dangerous electrical waste is being loaded into containers and illegally shipped abroad for reprocessing, according to a BBC Panorama programme broadcast on 16 May.
It was based on a joint investigation with the UK-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) in which GPS tracking devices were inserted inside broken TVs and fridges that where then disposed of at council recycling centres or collected by a commercial waste disposal company and their progress was then tracked. EIA has published a report on the problem (‘System Failure, www.eia-international. org)
Some of the tracked TVs were then found to have been loaded into containers and shipped to makeshift recycling sites in Ghana
in bubblewrap.
According to an Environment Agency (EA) study carried out three years ago, quoted on the programme, around 100,000 tonnes of illegal e-waste are shipped out of the country every year. Much of the illegal material is shipped out by what EIA terms ‘waste tourists’ - often nationals of the destination country resident in the UK.
Meanwhile, legitimate electrical waste disposal companies in Europe that have invested millions in recycling equipment complain that they are working at well below capacity. Campaigners have also pointed out that while recycling costs may be lower in developing countries, the crude methods used to extract valuable materials are often very inefficient, as well as harmful, so exporting waste for overseas reprocessing may be false economy.
The programme also stated that around one in eight containers manifested as containing working secondhand electrical items were actually loaded with scrap material.
According to the EIA’s global environment
campaign
Working TVs and screens hide a containerload of junk
and Nigeria. There, they were broken up using crude methods – often by school-age children – or burned, releasing toxic metals and gases into the environment. One container containing a tracked TV was intercepted in Felixstowe. The load of mostly scrap electrical equipment being illegally shipped abroad was found to have been disguised by a layer of apparently working, secondhand equipment wrapped
leader,
Fionnuala Walravens, the EA’s intelligence-led team’s funding ended in March, scaling back enforment efforts that were “already too small”.
She added that the fines levied on illegal exporters of perhaps £12,000 were also inadequate, considering that many of them made profits of several thousands per container. Many of them carried on exporting, even after being convicted, she added. Enforcement efforts by the authorities, including HM Revenue & customs could also be strengthened, said Walravens.
overseeing many of the UK recycling sites that accept waste from the public. It cited instances in Croydon and Merton in south London, where logistics and freight operator DHL operates the producer compliance scheme in partnership with Environmental Waste Controls Ltd. According to the report, DHL is one of the country’s largest operators of producer compliance schemes with over 450 customers. EIA said however that three
broken cathode ray tubes with trackers inserted eventually ended up being diverted into
3 Campaigners unmask illegal waste trade
export streams destined for West Africa. “The case shows that EWC, DHL and Merton councils failed to exercise a duty of care for e-waste under their control,” said EIA in its report. Walravens added that one of the problems in the UK was that were in
fact around 30
producer compliance schemes, compared with only two or three in most other European countries. That had led to intense price competition and a resultant lowering in standards of checking, allowing more material to be illegally exported, she suggested.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36