Environmental Group Offers Businesses a Way to Track Their e-Waste

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EARTHEYE TRACKING WILL PREVENT DATA BREACHES AND ENVIRONMENTAL DUMPING

 

June 21, 2018. Seattle, WA. Basel Action Network (BAN), which has become internationally known for placing GPS units inside discarded electronics and tracking them to horrific recycling operations in Asia and Africa, is now offering an enterprise-scale version of their technology to corporations and governments of all kinds.

 
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Launched today, EarthEye™ offers real-time logistics monitoring to government agencies and to businesses concerned about the possibility of data-security breaches from the theft of data from discarded equipment; unauthorized exports to substandard recycling operations in developing countries; and brand damage from lack of accountability and downstream due-diligence. On Tuesday, a leading computer manufacturer announced a partnership with BAN to track their waste after BAN had discovered their consumer take-back program’s e-waste going offshore in violation of company policy.

"In this day and age, really bad things can happen if you don't know precisely where your old electronics are going to end up," said BAN director and founder, Jim Puckett. "Our work has shown over and over again that there are just too many risks and too many so-called recyclers willing to take them. EarthEye is the result of over 10 years of development, providing what is, in effect, a performance audit every 24 hours - and does so at a very low price." 

 

EarthEye has been created so any business that cares, can know precisely where their wastes, products or assets are at any time. Copyright BAN.

EarthEye has been created so any business that cares, can know precisely where their wastes, products or assets are at any time. Copyright BAN.

Industry investigations have shown that 48% of hard disks and solid-state drives found in used computers sold online contain private residual data. And BAN's own studies have shown that 40% of the tracked devices given over to electronics recyclers were sent offshore to developing countries rather than being recycled in the USA as claimed by the contracted recyclers. 

The evidence is compelling that far too many companies are unaware of the risks involved with improper management of electronic waste. BAN's tracking has already led to Federal indictments, convictions, and prosecutions for both fraud and environmental crimes at the companies: Diversified Recycling in Georgia, Executive Recycling in Colorado, Intercon Solutions in Illinois, and Total Reclaim in Washington. 

"We have learned that audits, inspections and diligent compliance officers alone cannot always prevent bad actors from jeopardizing a company's reputation and resources," said Hayley Palmer, Program Director of EarthEye. "EarthEye is a cost-effective service that does what nobody else can do -- detects fraud or contractual violations after the auditors have gone home. In doing so, EarthEye can help companies get ahead of potential problems, rather than finding themselves scrambling to react to a PR nightmare."

END 

For more information contact: 

Jim Puckett, Executive Director of Basel Action Network,
email: jpuckett@ban.org,
phone: +1 (206) 652-5555

Hayley Palmer, Program Director of EarthEye,
email: info@eartheye.org,
phone: +1 (206) 717-7439

About Basel Action Network 

Founded in 1997, the Basel Action Network is a 501(c)3 charitable organization of the United States, based in Seattle, WA. BAN is the world's only organization focused on confronting the global environmental justice and economic inefficiency of toxic trade and its devastating impacts. Today, BAN serves as the information clearinghouse on the subject of waste trade for journalists, academics, and the general public. Through its investigations, BAN uncovered the tragedy of hazardous electronic waste dumping in developing countries. For more information, see www.BAN.org.