Toxic chemicals - the solutions

Mountains of e-waste are piling up in China

The only way to keep ourselves and the natural world safe from dangerous chemicals is to make sure we don't produce them in the first place. Clean production is much better than trying to manage the consequences of dirty industry. It would cut the level of harmful chemicals released in to the environment, and be a far better use of resources. For a completely clean future we also need to work towards producing zero waste, so that products are designed in such away that everything can be reused or recycled and nothing ends up as rubbish.

Eliminate hazardous chemicals

Our research into the hazardous chemicals present in consumer products, house dust, rainwater and even blood have added to the growing evidence that man-made chemicals are out of control, threatening our health and environment. The solution is to challenge the companies that manufacture these products to eliminate the most toxic chemicals, and replace them with safer alternatives.

A clean, toxic-free world could be ours – but only if we choose itAfter years of failing to protect us, our government (through the European Union) announced legislation in December 2006 that will for the first time require manufacturers to provide vital health and safety information on thousands of chemicals, and require the replacement of the most hazardous substances with safer alternatives. Unfortunately this legislation (known as REACH - the Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals) has been so watered-down by political lobbying and concessions granted to multinational chemical corporations that it has many loopholes. Despite this it still represents an important step forward in the regulation and evaluation of chemicals.

REACH: news update

Clean-up e-waste

An equally important part of the solution is proper waste management. In the 1980s the UK was dumping chemicals in to the North Sea, until our campaign got the practice banned. But today, most rubbish is still either dumped in landfills or burnt in incinerators, producing dangerous pollution and wasting valuable resources which could be recycled. A recent trend is that toxic electronic waste, or e-waste, from mobile phones and computers now accounts for five per cent of all municipal solid waste worldwide; nearly the same amount as all plastic packaging, but it contains levels of toxic chemicals and heavy metals which make it much more hazardous.

Zero waste strategy

A clean, toxic-free world could be ours – but only if we choose it. The true answer to our mounting rubbish problems is to push for a zero waste strategy. Products need to be designed so that they do not use or contain dangerous chemicals, do not produce waste and are easy to use and recycle. The government urgently needs to put money into more and better recycling facilities. Companies, not the public, must be made to pay for the disposal of their products – this will encourage them to use fewer harmful materials and more that can be recycled.