The South London councils featured in a BBC Panorama programme last night (May 16) which showed broken TV sets being sent for attempted illegal export to Nigeria have launched a full and through investigation into the running of the civic amenity sites shown in the investigation.
In the show, broken TVs fitted with trackers are left at civic amenity sites in Croydon and Merton, both of which are run under contract by Environmental Waste Controls on behalf of the four-council South London Waste Partnership (SLWP).
The TVs are tracked being transported to an unnamed sub-contractor in the North, with one then travelling in a container to the Port of Felixstowe. This set is then shown being stopped by the Environment Agency before being exported illegally to West Africa having been marked as fit for reuse.
Two arrests are then shown being made at the site of the sub-contractor, which is unnamed for legal reasons. A further broken TV with a tracker put inside it is purchased and collected by a WEEE recycling firm from a mocked up business and then tracked first to Ghana and then to Nigeria.
Following the screening of the show, the South London Waste Partnership said it was extremely concerned about the BBC programmes findings, which came alongside a report on the illegal WEEE export issue by campaign group the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) (see letsrecycle.com story).
The Partnership has acted quickly and decisively in responding to these allegations: we have launched a full and thorough investigation that will look in detail at the actions of all contractors and sub-contractors involved in the running of these sites, it said.
It added: While this investigation is ongoing, all activities relating to the re-use of televisions deposited at the Partnerships Reuse and Recycling Centres have been suspended (televisions left by residents are being sent for recycling rather than reuse until the matter is resolved.
Similarly decisive action will be taken against any companies that are found to have acted in contravention of regulations.
EWC
Merseyside-based Environmental Waste Controls (EWC) has held the contract to manage the SLWPs civic amenity sites since September 2008, while the DHL compliance scheme is responsible for clearing WEEE from the sites.
EWC today said it was no longer sending any electrical equipment collected at the sites to either of the sub-contractors who were appointed, via DHL, to take equipment and recycle it or send it for reuse.
It said it ended its relationship with one, which features heavily in the BBC programme, in October 2010 due to an unrelated contractual issue and with the other once the BBC alerted it to the programmes findings in March 2011.
The company explained that it was now using two alternative approved authorised treatment facilities SWEEEP Kuusakoski in Kent and Sussex-based MDJ Light Brothers to handle WEEE sent, via DHL, from the SLWP sites.
And it stressed that all electrical equipment collected at these, and indeed all its 32 CA sites nationwide, was no longer being sent for reuse and was instead being recycled and reprocessed in the UK.
For its part, DHL today stressed the auditing proceedures it has in place with its subcontractors and said that any failure to comply with its audits would lead it to stop working with them.
“At no time was DHL aware of, nor did it or does it ever sanction or condone, the export of non-working product. Indeed, DHL carries out a number of other visits and checks to satisfy its duty of care in addition to regular audits,” the scheme said in a statement.
“As soon as the allegations were made, DHL immediately suspended all re-use operations with the organisation in question and this position continues. DHL is entirely confident that it has undertaken its commitments diligently and remains wholly committed to providing a first class WEEE collection and recycling service to its customers in the future.
Margaret Bates
The Panorama programme featured Dr Margaret Bates, manager of the SITA Centre at the University of Northampton, who said the show made it important to stress the difference between illegal export of WEEE and the legal export of equipment that was fit for reuse.
I think we need to be very careful to separate the illegal and legal trade, she told letsrecycle.com. Theres a perfectly good legal trade.
Dr Bates has been involved in working with UK WEEE recycling firm Reclaimed Appliances to set up a WEEE recycling facility in Nigeria (see letsrecycle.com story). It is understood that major electronics manufacturers in the UK are also involved in establishing a facility in the West African nation.
As such, Dr Bates called for more action to address illegal activity in the UK, but said that banning export of used electrical equipment from the UK altogether would affect the livelihoods of those involved in selling on the equipment overseas.
She praised the action being taken by the Environment Agency to tackle the issue but raised concerns over its future resources to continue to do so. The EAs approach is copied around the work but their funding is being cut, she said.
However, the Agency today highlighted the 22 investigations it has ongoing into illegal waste exports, the four successful prosecutions of illegal WEEE exporters it has secured this year and its largest ever WEEE export case, which is set to go to trial in October.
But, Sarah Chare, National Enforcement Services Manager at the Environment Agency, added: the reality is some criminals of illegally exporting some of the UKs electrical waste, which is causing harm to people and the environment overseas.
We would urge local authorities and businesses to take their legal responsibility seriously and audit their waste contractors to ensure hazardous electrical waste is being properly recycled here in the UK.”
The BBC Panorama Track My Trash show can be viewed on the BBCs iPlayer.
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