Investigation reveals UK "recycling" being illegally dumped in India

The Environment Agency, the UK recycling sector and local councils will all be bracing themselves for a fresh round of criticism ahead of the broadcast tonight of a major investigation by ITV's Tonight show that is expected to reveal that UK waste intended for recycling is being illegally dumped in India.

The investigation by Tonight reporter Mark Jordan found that British waste, including newspapers, food packaging and plastic bags, was being buried in farmland wells in rural India.

Britain exports up to 14m tonnes of waste a year for recycling in countries such as India. However, the waste can only be shipped legally if it has already been sorted and is ready for recycling on arrival. It is believed that the waste uncovered in India, some of which was dated from earlier this year, had not been sorted and as such had been exported illegally to a local paper recycling plant before being dumped.

The report is expected to contrast the failure of UK councils to ensure that waste material is being recycled properly with controversial policies that have seen individuals fined for not sorting their rubbish correctly. It will also unveil the results of a survey that found that up to 46 local authorities do not know where recycling collected from households is processed.

A spokeswoman for the Environment Agency, the body tasked with enforcing waste regulations, told BusinessGreen.com that it was in discussions with the Tonight show and had asked it to share the results of its investigation so that it could commence its own investigation into the waste handling firms involved.

She added that councils also had a "duty of care" to know where their recycling ends up.

The revelations come just a few days after it emerged that the Local Government Association (LGA) has written to all council leaders urging them to step up efforts to ensure they know how the recycling they collect is processed.

The letter from chairman of the LGA's environment board Paul Bettison warns that some waste handling firms are breaching government guidelines by refusing to release data on how much material they recycle and where, and calls on councils to demand that this data is divulged.

Bettison said that he had also written to the Environment Agency calling on it to crack down on those waste handling firms that are refusing to release recycling data.

A spokeswoman for the Environment Agency confirmed that Agency chair Lord Smith had received the letter and would "respond in due course".

The Tonight report is the latest in a series of investigations confirming that UK waste laws are being flouted. Last month, Greenpeace International published a major study revealing that UK IT equipment was being dismantled in scrap yards in Africa, despite rules that ensure that only computers that are intended for reuse can be shipped out of Europe.