Environmental Investigation Agency prove PCD’s services to be water tight

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The Environmental Investigation Agency, in partnership with BBC’s Panaroma program, has for the past two years been conducting an undercover investigation into the illegal trade of exporting electronic waste abroad. The EIA targeted many companies in the UK who say they offer legal WEEE disposal services, including PCD. In October 2009 an undercover EIA officer had a meeting with Tim Hayden, PCD’s Managing Director, in an attempt to try to purchase eWaste for export to China. The EIA pretended to be a refiner from China and went to the lengths of setting up an office and fake business.

During this meeting Tim Hayden realised the officer was not an approved exporter as he could not produce any credentials to back up his claims. Immediately following the meeting PCD reported the bogus company to the Environment Agency, as is the norm, and refused to have any further contact with them. However, even after PCD snubbed their requests to buy waste, the EIA tested PCD’s practices further by deploying three trackers in broken CRTs and arranging for the equipment to be collected from a bogus business address. The EIA reported that “Analysis of the journey made by the CRTs shows they all ended up with legitimate recyclers”. The tracking of the CRTs occurred in late 2010.

In conclusion, out of the five organisations that the EIA investigated only PCD’s systems were proved to be legal and correct. “This is a fantastic endorsement of our water tight systems by the EIA, I don’t think we could have had higher praise from them” said Tim Hayden, he continued “We support the EIA with their ongoing investigations into the terrible trade of waste to Africa, we only wish more companies took our stance.”

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