Archived press release

UK dumps onld TVs on developing countries

30 June 2004

For the last two years, UK authorities have sanctioned a roaring illegal trade in waste electrical equipment.

Friends of the Earth has seen the summary of a report to the Environment Agency by industry group ICER [1] which estimates that 2 million computer monitors and 1 million old TVs have ended up in some of the poorest countries of the world since January 2002, breaking European regulations on the export of hazardous waste.[2]

Old TVs and computer monitors left by householders at civic amenity sites contain hazardous parts including cathode ray tubes. Under EU waste shipment regulations they are banned from export to non-OECD countries.[3] Discarded TVs and monitors are collected by a small number of firms and are rarely tested or repaired before export, according to the ICER report. The equipment ends up in Eastern Europe, the far East, the Indian subcontinent, West Africa and China where it is often dismantled in unsafe conditions, or simply dumped.

With our growing thirst for consumer electronics, this export of our pollution will get much worse unless the law is enforced. Since the regulations came into force in January 2002, the Environment Agency and the Government have done nothing to prevent this illegal trade. The Environment Agency has not made ICER's full report public.

Friends of the Earth's senior waste campaigner Claire Wilton said:

"The Environment Agency has known about this situation for two years. It even commissioned a report by industry experts, but has still failed to act. The companies involved in this illegal trade must be prevented from dumping Britain's toxic waste on developing countries, where worker conditions rarely match those expected in Europe.The Government and the Environment Agency must act now to prevent this environmental injustice continuing."

Notes

[1] ENDS Report obtained a summary of the report by the Industry Council for Electronic Equipment Recycling (ICER) which was completed in April 2004. The main findings will be published in ENDS Report Issue 353, 30^th June 2004.

[2] Export of hazardous waste to non-OECD countries was banned by the EU Waste Shipment regulation which came into force on 1 January 2002.

[3] The list of hazardous wastes that should not be exported to non-OECD countries includes "waste electrical and electronic assemblies or scrap containing components such as… glass from cathode ray tubes." The amendments came into force in January 2002. ICER estimates that 110-120,000 tonnes of CRT glass arise in the UK each year.

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust