Charity criticises govt's e-waste strategy

13:08 23rd September 2008

The government has been warned that it must do more to prevent the UK's electrical waste being illegally exported and dumped in countries like Ghana, Nigeria and China.

Computer Aid International, the international development charity, called on the government to provide the Environment Agency with the resources to police the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive, which came into force last year.

The charity believes that computer manufacturers are absolving responsibility for their equipment dumped in developing countries.

Louise Richards, chief executive of Computer Aid, said: "National newspaper exposes and reports from both Greenpeace and Consumers International clearly demonstrate the extent of the e-waste problem, and serve to highlight the limitations of the current legislative framework for e-waste."

Computer Aid has recycled more than 130,000 PCs and laptops, all of which are used to support e-learning, e-health, e-inclusion and e-agriculture projects in countries such as Kenya, Madagascar and Zambia.

Last week, Google suggested that the growth of cloud computing and internet connectivity will drive online searches to new levels over the next ten years.

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