| Recycling has changed considerably over the past | | | | headache. |
| few decades. The industry has moved beyond the | | | | Policing this sector of the recycling industry remains a |
| old Rag and Bone man and Scrap yard to encompass | | | | key issue for the UK's Environment Agency. Port |
| paper, glass, plastics, electronics, wood, building | | | | authorities have intercepted a number of container |
| rubble, steel, copper, aluminium and lead. In a similar | | | | loads full of untreated, hazardous wastes. The |
| vein, the processing of waste products has evolved | | | | containers have been, however, labeled by the |
| to include both mechanical and manual segregation. | | | | recycling company as containing valuable resources or |
| Mechanical processing now encompasses plant that is | | | | working electronic equipment. In a similar vein, |
| able to crush, grind and segregate recycled products | | | | container loads of waste that aren't intercepted at |
| into it's constituent materials. The use of | | | | UK ports are sometimes sent back from the |
| electromagnets, chemical processes, screening, | | | | destination port, having been intercepted by |
| sieving and computer controlled weight recognition | | | | authorities in the destination country. These |
| means that more resources are put back into the | | | | containers are typically untraceable and the UK's |
| manufacturing chain than ever before. | | | | Environment Agency are then tasked with sorting |
| However, manual recycling methods still remain at the | | | | through the wastes in a forensic manner, trying to |
| forefront of the industry, with initial segregation | | | | find out the source of the rubbish. |
| processes incorporating skilled labor in the | | | | There is however a further more serious issue with |
| dis-assembly of such items as computers and | | | | the export of untreated wastes. A number of |
| Television screens and separation of household | | | | Computer Recycling companies, having won tenders |
| wastes into plastics, card and paper. In the UK, | | | | from Local Authorities or the National Health Service, |
| licensing schemes (known as permitting) separate | | | | are paid to take away their waste computer |
| recycling businesses into those that segregate the | | | | equipment. However, having been tasked with the |
| wastes and those that mechanically treat the | | | | destruction of confidential data and removal of Asset |
| resultant resources. The outcome is a system that | | | | labelling/ details, they simply containerize the |
| allows for the collection, treatment and dissemination | | | | equipment and sell it for export outside of the |
| of various resources extracted from wastes to | | | | European Union. The result is that hard drives are sold |
| processing facilities, which can then re-distribute the | | | | on the black market for data mining and collection of |
| resultant raw materials to manufacturing related | | | | personal information and bank account details. Any |
| businesses. | | | | hazardous wastes, plastics and resources that can't |
| The key issue with this system of recycling is that | | | | be extracted are instead burnt or dumped, polluting |
| after the mechanical processing process has been | | | | local land, poisoning water supplies and killing local flora |
| completed, various hazardous waste byproducts are | | | | and fauna. We're not just talking about some localized |
| left behind. The manual processing company is usually | | | | issues here though, this is occurring on a global scale |
| left out-of-pocket as a result of this. The alternative | | | | and effecting hundreds of acre of land. Preventing |
| is to not manually process the waste in the first | | | | such issues can only be done at the source. This |
| place and instead sell it on for export outside of the | | | | means cementing legislation that the UK implemented |
| European Union. This somewhat illegal and dubious | | | | in 2007. Policing attitudes and crime prevention are |
| process means that the manual processing company | | | | now at the forefront of the UK's Envirnonment |
| makes an immediate profit for little work, leaving the | | | | Agencie's work. |
| country receiving the wastes with a rather big | | | | |