Not in My Backyard
June 21, 2007
German Environmental Aid (DUH) said on Wednesday that discarded electrical appliances were being illegally exported from Hamburg's harbor to Asian and African countries. The environmental group said it had recently observed containers designated for shipping abroad at the port -- Germany's biggest --overflowing with unpacked electrical appliances that appeared to be scrap.
This case and further ones "substantiate the suspicion that again on a grand scale dangerous junk is falsely being declared as merchandise from Germany to be disposed of in poor countries," said DUH managing director Jürgen Resch in Berlin.
He said Hamburg's environmental authorities had been informed about the cases and were told that the containers were legitimate merchandise for sale abroad. A spokesman for Hamburg's harbor police confirmed that the loose monitors were not packed in a way that would have protected them from damage before reaching their destination.
World champion of exported junk?
Under EU laws, old appliances must be dismantled and the metals recycled, which is expensive.
However, exporters paid 50 cents to one euro ($0.67 to $1.34) for a discarded computer monitor, although proper disposal would cost around four euros, Resch said. They then hide the old appliances under ones that appear fully functional in containers designated as goods to be exported for sale, he added.
The result was that companies that abided by the law were given a bad name.
Volker Dumann, spokesman for Hamburg's environmental authority, said that with a turnover of around nine million containers per year, systematic checks of containers passing through the harbor were not possible.
"We're dependent on tips, on well-founded suspicions from within the scene, from the police or customs officials," he told news agency AFP.
DUH's Resch called on the German government to put an end to the illegal export of electrical waste and scrapped cars.
"Otherwise the term 'Germany is export world champion' will soon acquire a new, unappetizing resonance," he said.