Ellee Seymour

News that the Environment Agency is paying for 1,4000 tonnes of toxic waste illegally dumped in Brazil to be returned to Britain has made us a laughing stock.

I hope the companies concerned are fined and struck off any list of recommended companies dealing with waste and recycling. After all, this is taxpayers’ money and the companies concerned should be forced to pay all the costs incurred.

The Brazilian authorities say that the waste found in the containers included syringes, bags of blood, condoms and nappies. Seats from chemical toilets and used bandages were also reported to be mixed with the bales of recyclable plastic while other containers held computers, televisions and car batteries.

Public resentment in Brazil increased when one of the containers was found to include a collection of dirty toys with a note in Portuguese saying that they should be washed before being distributed to “poor Brazilian children”. How shameful.

I wonder if this has happened in other countries too, particularly China, which imports our waste plastic for recycling. I suspect many people are not even surprised at this latest dumping; householders often state that they believe their recyclables are dumped at landfill as a reason not to recycle. It does nothing to promote trust and confidence in this very important area. And now this dumping has increased concern about the illegal trade in hazardous waste, despite international laws preventing export without strict safeguards.

My view is that we should in the UK be responsible for recycling our own waste – why do we need to ship it half way round the world at a time when we want to reduce carbon emissions? I remember not so long ago reading that there was only one plastic recycling facility in the UK, which is ludicrous when the demand by householders to recycle plastic is very high. I hope there are more now and that we can be self sufficient in this area.

This is an issue the government has failed to grasp and deal with effectively, and has ended up making us look a laughing stock.

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I can’t blame Ian Gibson, Norwich North MP, for his “stuff ‘em!” attitude after being deselected by Labour over the expenses row.

However, his clear lack of public support for his would-be replacement Chris Ostrowski has certainly helped our very capable and stunning candidate Chloe Smith, who has had the full support of the top Tory machinery to help her snatch Gibson’s seat.

Neighbouring MP Charles Clarke’s efforts to persuade Gibson to come out in support of Chris has fallen on deaf ears, even though Chris has been told he has it. And Rod Liddle’s pleas to Gibson about this were ignored too – and he called him at least 14 times!

Ostrowski must be tearing his hair out as not only Gibson, but also Gordon Brown and Peter Mandelson have failed to visit Norwich and plead his case. One wonders if they can’t be bothered, why should the people of Norwich North?

Regardless of how good the result might look for Chloe right now, only a fool would take a win for granted. There is still a lot of work to do to persuade disenchanted voters to turn up at the polls on Thursday – and vote Conservative.

After all, this is the start of the silly season, and anything could happen…..

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