Better late than never for South West Electrical Waste

11.45.26am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 18th Apr 2007

Plans for the collection and recycling of electrical and electronic waste in the South West are better late than never, claims a local Euro-MP Graham Watson.

The Government has announced that from this July a million tonnes of discarded televisions, computers, mobile phones, toasters and electric toothbrushes will have to be collected and recycled every year.

Electrical waste is the fastest growing type of household refuse and volumes are set to double over the next ten years. The equipment mostly now gets sent to landfill sites but much of it contains highly toxic metals such as lead, mercury and cadmium that will eventually leach out into groundwater.

The EU's Electrical and Electronic Waste Directive requires manufacturers to take responsibility for ensuring that their products are recycled. It was due to start in 2004 but has been delayed by the Government and leaves the UK as the last EU country to comply. The European Court of Justice has condemned the UK's failure to put the recycling laws in place.

Graham Watson, Liberal Democrat MEP for the South West and Gibraltar, has accused the government of dragging its heels on the issue. Speaking from Brussels, he said:

"Ministers say one thing when they agree new laws in Brussels but downgrade their environmental priorities when they get back to Whitehall. It's not a very convincing demonstration of the joined-up thinking we were promised from this Government."

Graham carried on to say:

"Electrical waste recycling laws have been operating successfully in a number of EU countries for some years. Britain does not have to reinvent the wheel it just has to copy best environmental practice."

REIPC, the body representing most of the UK leading electrical goods producers, says that every household in the UK contains at least 30 or 40 products that will be subject to the new rules.

Some 14 kg of electrical goods are discarded on average by every person in Britain annually but initially only a quarter of this amount must be separately collected.