Under international shipping regulations, companies are not allowed to ship waste to non-OECD countries. But there are “grey areas” with some waste streams, such as electrical equipment, as to when it becomes waste and when it is no longer waste.
But speaking at the annual ICER conference on Monday, Clare McCallan, waste regulation policy advisor, said that electrical equipment becomes waste when it is “discarded by the holder”. So, she explained, second hand televisions are classified as “discarded” by the last owner and must be checked for faults before being exported for re-use.
She said: “We want the shipments of televisions to be in at least working order and we are advising one company shipping them, basically because they are doing no checks on the TVs whatsoever that it means they have to stop doing that.”
Clare Snow, director of ICER, estimated that around 50% of old television sets are exported out of the UK, with many going to Nigeria.
The exports for materials for recycling in Nigeria there were strong concerns raised in the 1990s about environmental and recycling standards.
Ms McCallan said that the Environment Agency is expecting to publish guidance on the definition of waste by the end of June 2004.
She admitted that the new guidance is likely to have huge repercussions on companies and community groups handling waste electrical equipment, especially for re-use, and she said the Agency has been working with community group CREATE to clarify the issues.
“We have come to the conclusion with CREATE that equipment will remain waste to when they are on sale in a shop as second hand goods,” Ms McCallan said.
This means community groups are going to have to get relevant waste management licenses or exemptions in order to operate electrical goods re-use schemes.
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