Recommendation 40

HM Government Not Addressed

We agree with the Committee about the serious impact of illegal e-waste exports. The Government and the Environment Agency are both well aware of the devastating consequences on environmental and human health where e-waste is exported unlawfully and is not treated in appropriate recycling and recovery plants that are regulated to equivalent standards of UK plants. The Government and the Environment Agency are both committed to ensure all e-waste and e-waste derived materials are exported lawfully and under the correct controls. The majority of exports of e-waste are already deemed high risk and therefore either banned from export or notifiable. A legislation change would be required in order to make currently lawful exports of used EEE and WEEE-derived materials a higher risk or notifiable for shipment. Lawful exports of used EEE would not be recorded or monitored by the Environment Agency as the Trans-frontier Shipment Regulations only cover waste items. Used items must undergo testing or an assessment before export to ensure they can be reused directly or with minimal repair. Any used EEE that has not been assessed or requires testing and/ or more substantial repair must be considered to be waste and treated accordingly. A shipment of used EEE that has not been tested and needs more than minimal repair and is exported as non-waste would constitute an illegal shipment. The Environment Agency have also recently updated guidance on the impact of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) on the management of e-waste. This means more types of e-waste are considered to be hazardous and must be managed as a higher risk waste. An e-waste industry sponsored study found high levels of POPs and associated hazardous materials in many types of e-waste, and the new guidance instructs waste holders to assume that their items contains POPs unless they can prove otherwise. The POPs regulations also mean that once electrical equipment containing POPs is deemed to be waste it must be destroyed and cannot be re-used or recycled. This also means it cannot be exported unless for specific treatment for destruction. We are aware that there are concerns regarding the international shipment of e-waste and used EEE from many countries and the Basel Convention is working on new proposals for its technical guidelines on e-waste particularly regarding the distinction between waste and non-waste and the shipment of used items for repair. These guidelines would be adopted into UK law if agreed by the Basel Convention