Online Magazine and Directory
Councils need to take a more hands-on approach to checking what happens to used electrical equipment collected at their civic amenity sites to avoid being linked to the illegal export of WEEE to the developing world. That’s the message from Dean Overton, managing director of West Midlands-based waste electronic and electrical equipment reprocessor Overton Recycling, whose comments came in the wake of a BBC Panorama programme aired this week on the illegal export of WEEE.
The success of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive has been called into question by a new report from the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) which warned that the UK's e-waste continues to end up in west African scrap yards.
Axion Polymers has echoed industry concerns over increasing shortages of usable plastics waste in the UK and joined calls to reduce our dependence on export of valuable waste streams that should be the ‘new lifeblood’ for the country’s green economic growth.
Brussels – Including photovoltaic panels in the WEEE directive will reduce the potential negative environmental impacts of improper disposal and generates economic benefits. Limiting the quantity of photovoltaic panels improperly disposed of has the positive environmental impacts of avoiding lead and cadmium leaching and avoiding potential recourse loss due to non-recovery of valuable conventional resources and rare metals in photovoltaic panels.
