British toxic waste down the sewer

Friends of the Earth in Britain on April 28 named 23 companies in the north-east that have been pouring toxic waste down the drain. The companies include household names such as Ever Ready, Sterling Winthrop and Pringles of Scotland.

The companies are discharging chemicals on the government's “red list” into sewers, but the toxic waste will ultimately end up in the environment. These are chemicals defined by the government as the most toxic to the aquatic environment, most persistent and most liable to build up in the food chain.

There is currently no information in the public domain about the amounts of toxic chemicals being discharged into sewers. FoE is campaigning for all polluting companies to disclose the details of their polluting emissions.

Liana Stupples, pollution campaigner for FoE, said: “The public have a right to know about the environmental impacts of industry. These companies must come clean about what they are dumping down the sewers.”

Rivers in the north-east are already below European standards.

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