Cook Report rubbished by waste industry association
Page 11
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• A TV programme which showed more than half a dozen major landfill sites allegedly accepting waste they were not authorised to handle has been slammed by the industry it investigated.
Journalists working on last Thursday's Cook Report set up a bogus haulage company which tried to dump a load which accompanying paperwork said was poisoned with Paraguat. The company, "JR Cook Waste Management", made 14 visits to nine landfill sites and was turned away on only Iwo occasions.
But the National Association of Waste Disposal Contractors says a real haulier would not have risked breaching the duty of care regulations, which could put it out of business. "Duty of care provides a written poperchase from waste pro
duction to disposal so that it can be identified where something goes wrong. It gives each person a vested interest in meeting their responsibilities. The Cook Report team did not have this vested interest," says policy officer Julie Hopkins.
High Wycombe-based waste management company UK Waste agrees with NAWDC that the programme's argument was confused.
But it believes it highlighted the need for legislation in the sector to be tightened. However, investigator Roger Cook insists: "We've proved that the controls over dumping poisonous rubbish may exist on paper but not at the tips." The Cook Report—Muck and Money was screened on Thursday 24 November by Central Broadcasting.