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| RECYCLING OUTRAGE |
Anger over TV revelations that waste
goes to Far East
Cllr Bridget Fox |
INVESTIGATIONS by the Islington Tribune have revealed that newspapers,
bottles and tins diligently separated by environmentally concerned
homeowners pass through a chain of at least five stages and three
separate companies – each of which take a cut of council tax
payer cash – before it ends up in Indonesia.
Our inquires follow the damaging allegations in a BBC TV documentary
on Monday which described how waste for recycling has ended up in
a lorry container in Jakarta.
The Lib Dems were last night (Thursday) fighting a rearguard action
against a “scandal” which could prove enormously damaging.
The Lib Dems’ environment chief Councillor Bridget Fox told
this paper that she did not know what happened to the waste in Indonesia
and has launched an urgent inquiry.
But she added that as long as it was being recycled, she did not
mind that was transported to the Far East.
Part of the problem for the Lib Dems is the chain of companies who
subcontract the disposal of the waste once it leaves your doorstep.
• First, it is collected from the doorstep in boxes by private
refuse company ICSL who are contracted by Islington.
• They take it to the new state of the art council run recycling
centre in Lough Road where glass, paper, plastic and cans are separated.
• It is collected by London Waste Ltd – which is part
owned by Camden Council – who deliver the consignments to Grosvenor
Waste Ltd in Kent.
• It is then transported for recycling in this country or abroad.
Each company must be paid, and that pot starts with the money Islington
pays to ICSL.
Islington environmnmetalists, including the local Green party claimed
that is just this re-cycling chain that makes the material so difficult
to monitor and trace. At the same time furious residents in the
borough, who dutifully separate household rubbish to be collected
for recycling each week, were demanding to know what went wrong
(see letters, page 10).
Islington is proud that 18 per cent of domestic waste is re-cycled,
a figure that has leapt from just 10 per cent just a year ago.
But the Labour opposition spokesman for environment Cllr Wally Burgess
said: “Why can’t the waste be re-cycled in this country?
Why does it need to be shipped to Indonesia? How much are council
taxpayers paying for this service?
“Is this the best option? Barnet, for example, use just one
contractor. The investigative Real Story programme discovered a
quantity of the borough’s waste in a 500 tonne container lorry
in Jakarta.
The programme revealed that items of rubbish from residents in Islington
ended up in a lorry in Jakarta with no indication of where it was
bound.
The presenter, Moreland Saunders, searched through a rotting pile
of plastic and paper and came across a name and address on an envelope.
It was identified as Islington resident Jill Grace. She was later
re-united with the envelope at her home in Highbury Hill and expressed
her outrage.
Council bosses are now holding urgent talks with contractors London
Waste and Grosvenor Waste Management to find out what the waste
was doing in Indonesia.
The Environment Agency says that about half of the eight million
tonnes of green bin material thrown out each year in the UK ends
up overseas.
And contractors who export waste instead of processing it in the
UK are not breaking any law as long as it is properly sorted and
cleaned so that foreign mills and factories can recycle it.
A Grosvenor Waste Management statement read: “We categorically
deny allegations that recyclable material was or has been exported
for disposal to landfill.”
Islington Green party Parliamentary Candidate Jon Nott said: “Urgent
action is needed to restore public confidence in recycling and we
are calling for a full and open inquiry into what went wrong.”
He argued that the Government should be providing infrastructure
so that all British waste is re-cycled in Britain.
Councillor Fox said: “I was deeply concerned by what I saw
and I have ordered an immediate investigation into the apparent
evidence that recyclable material from Islington was included in
a shipment of mixed waste. I want to stress that residents should
continue to use our recycling facilities to recycle their paper,
glass, cans, plastic bottles and cardboard.”
Cllr Fox added that the council might yet take legal action:
She added: “Re-cycling is better than landfill and I’m
not against it being done abroad if that is the best option.
“Our contract is with London Waste and what we require is that
everything they pick up is re-cycled according to the law.
“I know there is an argument for re-cycling our waste within
the borough boundary. But we are the most densely populated borough
in the country so where would be build the infrastructure.
“If the companies we pay to recycle are not re-cycling –
whether it is happening here or anywhere else on the planet -then
we will take legal action and we want our money back |
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