A city council is at the centre of a probe into the illegal export of toxic waste after it was convicted of operating an illegal recycling scheme.
The investigation into the illicit export of waste to Ghana was revealed after Plymouth City Council was ordered to pay £11,742 in fines and costs for selling tv monitors and other potentially harmful electrical waste to unauthorised recyclers
Environment Agency investigators visited a local recycling business after receiving reports of illegal waste activity. An officer saw a large amount of waste electrical goods including tv monitors and washing machines stored outside in the open.
Monitors are classified as hazardous waste because of the large amount of potentially-toxic lead present in the cathode ray tube and screen.
Local authorities are required to ensure any waste electrical and electronic goods (WEEE) received at their civic amenity sites are kept safe and only sent to authorised treatment facilities for recycling and disposal. They have a duty to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill and increase recycling.
Councils must ensure the correct paperwork is completed when waste is transferred to a third party for recycling. This is done through transfer notes. The completion of transfer notes is a statutory requirement.
The site operator confirmed the electrical waste seen at his premises had come from Chelson Meadow Civic Amenity site. When asked for a transfer note the operator was reported to have said: “What’s a transfer note?”
When the officer visited Chelson Meadow he was told two other firms had removed hazardous wastes from the site without transfer notes. Neither company was authorised to take waste and store it at their premises.
Further checks revealed waste electrical goods including old tv’s had been illegally removed from another of the City Council’s civic amenity sites at Weston Mill.
Some of the waste was then sold on to a third party allegedly involved in the illegal export of waste. The Environment Agency is currently investigating illegal shipments of hazardous waste to Ghana. It is illegal to export electrical items which are beyond repair.
The court heard that televisions or washing machines sent to Africa may have been burnt for valuable materials inside, posing a health risk to workers and harming the environment.
“There were serious management failures at both these civic amenity sites as a result of negligence on the part of the council. Potentially hazardous electrical and electronic waste should have only been transferred to properly authorised waste contractors and this wasn’t happening. The purpose of the WEEE Regulations is to ensure waste is properly recycled in the UK and doesn’t end up in places like Africa,” said Matthew Lee for the Environment Agency.
Plymouth City Council has carried out a thorough review of its procedures and made sure all waste recycling activities are legal and comply with the strictest of conditions.
Appearing before Plymouth magistrates last week, Plymouth City Council was fined £8,000 and ordered to pay £3,742 costs after pleading guilty to four offences including, as a person who keeps and disposes of controlled waste, failed to ensure transfer notes were completed and signed in accordance with the Environmental Protection Act 1990. The offences were committed between April 1, 2008 and June 2, 2009.
A city council spokesman said after the case: "We fully accept that our administrative procedures should have been more rigorous. We have now carried out a thorough review of procedures to make sure that all our files on the waste and recycling disposal activities of our waste contractors are up-to-date and the correct checks made.
"This includes a comprehensive list of legal information, licences and permits and the files are now held at all of our waste disposal sites so they can be viewed easily.
"We have also briefed staff at all levels of our waste operation to make sure that they are clear that only approved contractors can take materials offsite.
"Information about duty of care checks is now part of our starter packs and we will carry out six-monthly checks to ensure these processes are working."
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