Waste Without Borders in the EU, a report produced by the European Environment Agency in March, outlined the level of illegal exportation of hazardous wastes to developing countries.
According to the report, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE or eScrap) is a particular problem and specifically WEEE sent to African countries. The authors of the report also stated that, “It is expected that reported cases represent a fraction of the actual number and that the number of illegal shipments is considerable.”Analysis of trade statistics in the report shows “that many discarded TV sets are shipped to Africa – their low prices are an indicator that some shipments are likely to be e-waste”.
The export of e-waste from the EU to African countries is prohibited, and non-governmental organisations report that disposal of this waste is damaging the environment and causing serious health problems for those employed in the disposal process, the report says. See here for a report of the journey of a discarded television from the EU.
EU member states must submit an annual report to the European Commission on the amounts of hazardous waste imported and exported. Coding of the waste is in accordance with the codes used in the Basel Convention, the aim of the Basel Convention is to protect human health and the environment from adverse effects caused by wastes, especially hazardous waste. Unfortunately there is no code that corresponds with WEEE and as a result more than one third of the waste notified is not classified.
See the full EU report here
The route to illegal disposal always starts with the person or company who discards the equipment in the first place and the supply of eScrap to illegal exporters can be cut off if companies or organisations make certain that the disposal company they use are properly licensed and operate to the highest standards.
The EU WEEE Directive of 2003 places responsibilities on member states and on producers regarding the collection and processing of WEEE. A more vigilant enforcement of the regulations and a willingness to comply with the spirit of the directive by producers would go a long way to preventing the less well off in the third world from having “solve” one of our waste problems.
One of the more interesting aspects of exporting WEEE in this way is the loss of valuable resources to the EU. See our earlier article “Wasting Valuable Resources by Exporting Electronic Waste from the EU”
Brendan Palmer MBA 22/04/09
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1 comment:
This is nice information for electronic user. I like your very much. computer recycling
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