ITV Programme highlights waste exports and duty of care

By Neil

September 10, 2008

This week ITV’s Tonight Programme revealed that waste originally collected for recycling by four British local authorities is being dumped on Indian farmland.

When presented with the evidence from the programme, the Environment Agency, which is tasked with policing these matters, said it would investigate further and take action if appropriate.

According to the Environment Agency, Britain exports between 12 and 14 million tonnes of waste a year to be recycled in third world countries. The majority of these exports are legal and above board. However, it is illegal to do so unless the waste has been properly divided into paper, metals, plastics and glass before it leaves the country.

Following the investigation, the Local Government Association, which represents local authorities in England and Wales, has called for a clear, accountable and transparent system so residents will continue to have confidence in the system and continue to recycle more.

In the programme Andy Moore, Co-ordinator of the Community Recycling Network said that local authorities have a duty of care to know where their recyclable waste is going and to ensure that it is actually being recycled.

He explains: "Local authorities clearly have a duty of care to advise their householders as to what to put into the recycling and what not and householders clearly have a duty of care to put the right things in but local authorities also have a duty of care to the householders to make sure that the material they have so carefully separated is actually being recycled."

The CRN UK, along with the CRNS and several other organisations, is a supporter of the Campaign for Real Recycling, which wants central government and local authorities to act urgently to improve the quality of materials collected for recycling in the UK.

LGA Response

Cllr Paul Bettison, Chairman of the LGA Environment Board, said, “It is vital that people have confidence in recycling so we can encourage them to go that extra mile and do more. If a contractor refuses to reveal where materials are being sold it can lead to suspicion and undermine the whole process. It is important that local authorities and local people are confident that their waste is being sold or exported responsibly.”

The LGA has written to the Environment Agency, whose role it is to police the trading of recyclable material, to urge pressure to be brought on these firms to be more transparent. Every council leader in England and Wales has also been written to by the LGA to stress the importance of having detailed information about where recycled items are sold or sent to.

Duty of Care

The NetRegs website, which provides free environmental guidance for small and medium-sized businesses in the UK, outlines Duty of Care as follows:

As a business, you have a duty to ensure that any waste you produce is handled safely and within the law. This is your 'duty of care'. It applies to anyone who produces, imports, transports, stores, treats or disposes of controlled waste from business or industry. Commercial, industrial and household wastes (including hazardous/special wastes) are classified as ‘controlled waste’. The duty of care also applies to anyone that acts as a waste broker.

You must check that anyone that you pass your waste on to is authorised to take it. If you don’t check that they are authorised to take your waste and it is illegally disposed of, you could be held responsible.

People you pass your waste on to include waste contractors, scrap metal merchants,  recycling companies,  your local council and skip hire companies.

The duty of care has no time limit. It extends until the waste has either been finally disposed of or fully recovered.

The full programme can be viewed online for the next 28 days on the ITV website

For more information about the Campaign for Real Recycling

For more information about Duty of Care please visit the NetRegs website

For more information and responses from the Local Government Association, including the letter to local authorities, please visit the news section of the LGA website

You can also read related articles at letsrecycle.com

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