Westminster's Chinese recycling disgrace

8.34.49pm GMT Tue 30th Jan 2007

Ever wondered what Westminster does with your recycling?

Ever wondered what Westminster does with your recycling?

Well, all you have to do is read the Council's "Recycle This" leaflet. In it, the Council proudly boasts that all those copies of the Daily Mail, the Wood & Vale, the Paddington Mercury, and all those other newspapers you have put out for recycling are actually shipped 3,000 kilometres to Finland - while some of our cardboard and ALL our plastic bottles are sent 10,000 fuel-guzzling kilometres to China!

In fact, last year alone, Westminster played its part in sending almost two million tonnes of British waste to China, according to figures uncovered by Liberal Democrat Shadow Environment Secretary Chris Huhne MP.

Apologists for the policy say that the Chinese want to buy the plastics to turn into polyesters for carpets and fabrics, but BBC News reports from Lianzhou in southern China have shown families on near slave wages sorting through mountains of British rubbish. This is because it is cheaper for people, rather than machines, to sort through our waste.

Commenting, local Liberal Democrat Neville Farmer said, "Westminster must fully and thoroughly investigate now whether or not material from Westminster meant for recycling in China is in any way connected with these BBC reports of terrible working conditions in China."

What is worse is that it now appears that anything that isn't used is simply buried in Chinese landfills.

"If reports are true that our recycling simply ends up in waste dumps rather than being used properly then this is an environmental disgrace", says Huhne. "It is no good recycling more here in Britain if this simply ends up in a landfill site somewhere else."

Commenting, local Liberal Democrat Neville Farmer said, "All Westminster is doing is sweeping its problems under the Chinese carpet."