Electronic waste illegally dumped in developing countries

Hazardous electrical and electronic waste is still being shipped and dumped illegally in developing countries according to Greenpeace.

Although not the only country associated with such activity, ironically the UK's involvement has been exacerbated by the environmental laws: the Hazardous Waste regulations  and the pan-European Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive .

In July last year it became illegal in the UK to dump computer equipment such as monitors in landfill according to the Hazardous Waste regulations. However WEEE, which governs the disposal of electrical and electronic waste, has yet to be implemented in the UK, despite becoming European law last year.

Because WEEE has not been enforced in the UK, there are no proper audit trials to trace the collection, treatment and recycling of old electrical and electronic equipment.

This means that even though UK local authorities and manufacturers may want to dispose of the waste properly, they can't trace where it ultimately ends up.

Greenpeace said unscrupulous recycling companies are using this lack of accountability to ship this waste illegally through Europe to developing countries.

Another concern for environmentalists and companies is the way the WEEE regulations allow each European country to interpret the legislation slightly differently. This is resulting in different rules in different countries.

Zeina Alhajj, who is campaigning for Greenpeace against such toxic waste said an investigation carried out of 17 European seaports in November 2005 for the International Seaport project found the European regulations for exporting waste are frequently violated.

These violations were detected primarily in France, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.

"A much as 48 per cent of western Europe's waste goes to developing countries for disposal. Much of this includes toxic electrical and electronic waste, even though countries such as India and China have banned the import of this waste.

"But because it is falsely labelled as scrap metal or computers for reuse, put in containers, not all of which can be checked, it ends up in these very countries. Much of the dismantling is carried out by young children," said Ms Alhajj.