The government has been told it must do more to prevent the UK's
electrical waste being
illegally exported and dumped in countries such as Ghana,
Nigeria and China.
International development charity
Computer Aid
International has called on the government to provide the
Environment Agency with the resources to police the
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive,
which came into force last year.
The charity has taken aim at "cowboy commercial traders actively
abusing re-use and recycling initiatives", as well as computer
manufacturers shirking responsibility for their equipment dumped in
developing countries.
Louise Richards, CEO of Computer Aid, said, "National newspaper
exposés and reports from both Greenpeace and Consumers
International clearly demonstrate the extent of the e-waste
problem, and serve to highlight the limitations of the current
legislative framework for e-waste.
"In Nigeria alone, more than half a million second-hand PCs
arrive in Lagos every month, yet only one in four works."
Richards said the Environment Agency must be provided with the
resources to police e-waste, prosecute anyone involved in a supply
chain that results in the dumping of e-waste, and remove licences
from organisations in breach of the WEEE legislation.
"It is imperative that the government clamps down on fraudulent
traders posing as legitimate re-use and recycling organisations,
who are enticing unwitting UK businesses to use them for disposal
of electrical equipment."
She said such traders do not declare the contents of their
shipments as hazardous e-waste, but falsely claim consignments
consist entirely of electrical equipment destined for productive
re-use.
The result, she said, is that the waste is manually scavenged
for metals, then stripped down and incinerated in the open air,
damaging the environment and potentially harming those employed to
do the scavenging and stripping - often children.
Computer Aid also highlights how existing legislation is failing
to hold manufacturers to account if their products are found dumped
in developing countries.
Under the "producer pays" principle of the WEEE Directive,
producers of electrical equipment are responsible for funding the
end of life recycling of equipment within the European Union, but
no such legislation exists for the millions of electronic products
sold in Africa, Latin America and Asia .
Producers should be made to accept the producer pays principle
on a global scale, and take responsibility for the safe recycling
of products in developing countries, said Computer Aid.
To date, Computer Aid has refurbished more than 130,000 PCs and
laptops, all of which are being used to support e-learning,
e-health, e-inclusion and e-agriculture projects in countries such
as Kenya, Madagascar and Zambia .
Asset tracking ensures all computers can be traced to the exact
hospital, school or project they are benefiting.
WEEE:
http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2008/02/14/229401/smes-unaware-of-weee-regulations-says-environment-agency.htm
http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2008/03/18/229910/gas-infrastructure-provider-fulcrum-recycles-2000-it-items-under.htm