Cardiff Dumping our plastic bags in India!

Recycling waste shipped overseas http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7123969.stm
How disgraceful is this! Pressure group Greenpeace called for a ban on packaging recovery notes (PRNs) for waste exports. Greenpeace campaigner Mark Strutt said: “It is a cop out for companies responsible for recycling their waste to send it abroad. The proximity principle stands. It is highly questionable whether there is an environmental benefit to sending waste to be recycled in China.

“We are an industrialised country and are perfectly capable of dealing with our own waste. China should not have to accept the environmental impact of recycling. People have to ask themselves why it is cheaper to send waste abroad – is it due to cheap labour and lax environmental controls? And how do we know waste is actually being recycled when it is that far away?

“We would like to see a ban on exported waste under the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations. Companies sending waste abroad should not get PRNs.”

Crack down on exports of illegal waste

Authority outraged as its waste is sent to India

Battle erupts over calls to halt frenzy of waste export to Asia

Contaminated recycling – is the real issue co-mingled rubbish?

The type of recyclables generated in co-mingled sacks is of terrible quality. It’s so contaminated only the Far East market will touch it. And even they are becoming increasingly frustrated. Co-mingled waste has been shunned by European paper mills for some time so why are councils here wanting to use this method? It’s ridiculous.

See article below
Cardiff denies quality issues …"No quality issues" as revolutionary Cardiff MRF eyes new equipment
Cardiff’s two year old materials recycling facility (MRF), has already put in a tender to upgrade its equipment “to remove organic material and shredded paper from recycled glass”. When it opened the council run Cardiff MRF at Lamby Way was touted as a technological revolution but equipment to improve the quality assurance of its glass waste stream is being bought (June 14 2005 mrw.co.uk).
In the tender, procurement officers argue that “changing market conditions mean that without further cleansing the residual product will have to go to landfill and incur council fiscal penalties… Equipment is required to remove the contamination to less than 2%.”

Welsh recyclate heading east (04/12/2007) MoreThanWaste, UK - "This has grave implications, not only for the exploitation of the workers who pick through the rubbish, but also for the environment. ...

Nationalists demand Welsh recycling review letsrecycle.com, UK - Plaid Cymru - the Party of Wales - is calling for a review of Welsh Government policy on recycling, following research conducted by the Party showing which ...

Authorities must improve Daily Post, UK - LOCAL authorities across Wales are under the cosh – and rightly so – for packing our recyclable rubbish off to the four corners of the world. ...

City waste heads to the Far East

ic Wales - United Kingdom
Leanne Wood, AM for South Wales Central, said she was concerned the council initially denied it sent waste abroad following her Freedom of Information ...
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Councils admit exporting recycling
ic Wales -SEVEN councils in Wales have admitted exporting large quantities of household waste to be recycled thousands of miles away. Politicians last night warned ...

Cardiff County Council said 5.4% of its total recyclables consisted of cardboard that went to Indonesia and China. A further 2.1%, plastic bags, went to India, and 0.12%, mixed plastics, went to China.
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The UK's new rubbish dump: China | Special reports | Guardian ...

The current price for sending a standard 26-tonne container of waste plastic to China, he said, is about £500. The Tanjin Songzi Import and Export Trade ... www.guardian.co.uk/waste/story/0,12188,1308278,00.html - 46k -