Recyclers' rubbish dumped abroad!
Councils are investigating what happens to their recycled rubbish after the BBC revealed 500 tonnes of rubbish had been shipped unsorted to Indonesia, where Customs, at Jakarta, impounded containers holding mixed up paper, cardboard, plastics and cans from UK households. The rubbish was clearly British and falsely described as waste paper. Documents linked it to a company contracted to process recycling by councils in the South of England. According to the British Environment Agency, about half of the 8m tons of green bin material thrown out each year in the UK ends up overseas.
Contractors who export waste instead of processing it in the UK are not breaking any UK law - as long as it is properly sorted and cleaned so that foreign mills and factories can recycle it. But the Indonesian authorities classified the 80,000 green bins worth of material as hazardous waste.
After checking the containers held up at Jakarta's Tanjung Priok docks, the BBC Real Story team went to the address given on the shipping documents as the waste's final destination. It led them to a closed down Japanese restaurant on the outskirts of the city.
According to Indonesia's environment minister, the only possible consequence of such a trail was that the rubbish from England would end up dumped on his country. The one recycling plant in Jakarta did not receive foreign rubbish and was struggling to cope with the waste produced locally.
"It's against international law. They should be aware of that."
The Real Story team who looked through the containers also found mail addressed to residents in Essex and London. They returned some of this to the original recipients. "It's absolutely outrageous," said Jill Grace when reunited with a TV magazine sent to her home in Islington and subsequently put in her green bin. "What's the point? Why are we recycling?"
Islington and Essex councils said they were carrying out thorough investigations into Real Story's findings and taking action to ensure that waste sent for recycling was being properly processed.
The Environment Agency said recent national inspections of green bin material being exported showed there was a problem.
"We found something in the region of 75% of the waste containers were not satisfactory. They were not in accordance with the requirements for export and they were stopped."
Contractors who export waste instead of processing it in the UK are not breaking any UK law - as long as it is properly sorted and cleaned so that foreign mills and factories can recycle it. But the Indonesian authorities classified the 80,000 green bins worth of material as hazardous waste.
After checking the containers held up at Jakarta's Tanjung Priok docks, the BBC Real Story team went to the address given on the shipping documents as the waste's final destination. It led them to a closed down Japanese restaurant on the outskirts of the city.
According to Indonesia's environment minister, the only possible consequence of such a trail was that the rubbish from England would end up dumped on his country. The one recycling plant in Jakarta did not receive foreign rubbish and was struggling to cope with the waste produced locally.
"It's against international law. They should be aware of that."
The Real Story team who looked through the containers also found mail addressed to residents in Essex and London. They returned some of this to the original recipients. "It's absolutely outrageous," said Jill Grace when reunited with a TV magazine sent to her home in Islington and subsequently put in her green bin. "What's the point? Why are we recycling?"
Islington and Essex councils said they were carrying out thorough investigations into Real Story's findings and taking action to ensure that waste sent for recycling was being properly processed.
The Environment Agency said recent national inspections of green bin material being exported showed there was a problem.
"We found something in the region of 75% of the waste containers were not satisfactory. They were not in accordance with the requirements for export and they were stopped."
posted by TIUranta at 4:27 AM
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