Reading-based commercial e-waste specialist Sam Mountain was a key witness at a Parliamentary committee examining the Government’s progress on tackling the UK’s electronic waste mountain.
Sam, Director at expanding Intelligent Waste Management Ltd (iWaste), was invited to the Palace of Westminster to address the Environmental Audit Committee chaired by Philip Dunne MP.
He was at an evidence gathering session looking into electronic waste and the circular economy as well as assessing the main challenges affecting the waste industry for electronic products and gauging what developments there had been since the last evidence session in 2020.
The UK generates the second-highest amount of e-waste per capita in the world, with 23.9 kg, just behind Norway, and the committee wanted to know whether enough was being done to address such a key area of waste.
Electrical and electronic equipment are estimated to be Europe’s fastest growing source of waste, increasing by 3-5% year on year. UK households and businesses discard an estimated two million tonnes of e-waste each year.
Sam, who co-founded iWaste in 2013, gave evidence alongside industry specialists Katy Medlock, UK General Manager of Back Market; Andrew Mullen, Chair, Joint Trade Association and Chris Chandler, WEEE Lead, National Association of Waste Disposal Officers.
The committee, whose members include the Green Party’s Caroline Lucas, Labour’s Barry Gardiner and Conservative former Transport Secretary Chris Grayling, heard from a host of organisations and experts working across the waste and recycling industries.
Sam, who was accompanied to the Houses of Parliament by iWaste General Manager Louise Drysdale, said: “It was a privilege to be invited to give evidence to such an important committee.
EVIDENCE: Sam Mountain, iWaste Operations Director
“I am heartened that the Environmental Audit Committee continues to call the Government to account over its waste strategy and its moves towards a ‘circular economy’.
“Although the Government accepted many of the recommendations made by the committee back in November 2020 it included only a limited number of mentions in its recent consultation on electrical waste.
“I fully agree with Philip Dunne’s view that the Government was ‘yet to grasp fully the scale of the e-waste tsunami’ and I am willing to support any moves to push e-waste to the top of the agenda.”
The evidence session looked at whether UK Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) collection targets were achievable and what challenges UK producer compliance schemes and WEEE re-processors faced in meeting the collection targets
MPs also considered what caused fraud in the UK’s e-waste system and how it could be addressed, as well as what action the Government could take to prevent to the illegal export of e-waste to the developing world.
Also, had the UK Government considered all essential aspects of tackling WEEE in its consultation and was UK public awareness of e-waste recycling satisfactory? If not, how could it be improved?
iWaste, which employs 35 people and celebrated its 10th anniversary last year, is based at Arborfield Cross, near Reading.
