Waste Crime - Waste Risks: Gaps in Meeting the Global Waste Challenge

In England, the first case where anyone was sentenced to jail for illegal export of e-waste was concluded in May 2014. A licensed waste processor was jailed for 16 months by a court in the UK for illegally exporting 46 tonnes of hazardous elec- trical waste to Nigeria, Ghana, and other destinations in Africa. Investigators found the defendant had been collecting e-waste from a number of council-run sites in the London area and taking it to his licensed waste premises. Instead of processing the e-waste properly, he sold and loaded four containers of items – including cathode ray TVs and fridge freezers with ozone depleting substances – to brokers and shipping firms who then exported the waste to West Africa. He loaded items at the front of the containers that appeared to have been tested properly for functionality and even put “testing labels” on them. On inspection these items were found not to work despite the labels suggesting otherwise. Further into the containers the “testing labels” disappeared and none of the items were protectively wrapped. Almost UK case: export of illegal e-waste

half the items tested from each container failed. The Envi- ronment Agency (EA) calculated that the defendant made a profit of about USD 12 000 on each container. The Agency said that such export trade is not a victimless crime. The containers contained a variety of hazardous materials and ozone depleting substances that can have serious detri- mental impacts on health and the environments of the receiving countries if not recycled in an environmentally sound manner. The defendant was a repeat offender. In 2012, following a three-year investigation by the EA, the defendant and a number of other waste traders, processors, and ship- pers were convicted and fined a total of more than USD 30 000 for activities associated with illegal waste exports. The defendant was in the process of appealing his original fine when he was caught committing this second offence.

Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/waste-dealer-jailed-for- 16-months-after-dangerous-shipments-stopped-at-port

United Kingdom E-waste production and shipping

Sweden

UK

Russian Federation

Netherlands

Germany

Belgium

Reported UK illegal e-waste shipping, 2011-2014

Poland

Spain Italy France

Pakistan

Ghana

Côte d’Ivoire

Nigeria

Congo

E-waste generation Top 10 European Countries Million tonnes, 2012 1 889

Wastes illegally shipped from UK Million tonnes, 2012*

800 240

Other

1.7

Sources: Environmental Services Association Education Trust (ESAET), Waste Crime: Tackling Britain’s Dirty Secret, 2014; EIA, System Failure: The UK’s Harmful Trade in Electronic Waste, 2011; SteP online database, accessed February 2015; The Guardian press review

0.6

E-waste

42