Director at Reading’s iWaste addresses parliamentary committee

Commercial e-waste specialist Sam Mountain was a key witness at a recent parliamentary committee examining the government’s progress on tackling the UK’s electronic waste mountain.

Sam, director at Reading’s Intelligent Waste Management Ltd (iWaste), was invited to the Palace of Westminster alongside general manager Louise Drysdale to address the environmental audit committee, chaired by Philip Dunne MP.

He attended 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 developments since the last evidence session in 2020.

The UK generates the second highest quantity of e-waste per capita in the world at 23.9kg, just behind Norway.

Electrical and electronic equipment are estimated to be Europe’s fastest growing source of waste, increasing by 3 to 5 per cent year on year.

Sam, who co-founded iWaste in 2013, gave evidence alongside industry specialists Katy Medlock, UK general manager of Back Market; Andrew Mullen, chair at the Joint Trade Association; and Chris Chandler, WEEE lead at the 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 said: “It was a privilege to be invited to give evidence to such an important committee.

“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’m 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 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 the illegal export of e-waste to the developing world.

The committee was keen too for the government to consider all essential aspects of tackling WEEE in its consultation, and to make the UK public more aware of e-waste recycling.