GPS Trackers Reveal Dell and Goodwill Continue to Export Your e-Waste to Developing Countries

3rd-Time Violation of Corporate Policies and Laws

Seattle, WA. Washington DC. October 7, 2020. In its program to routinely monitor US electronics recyclers and takeback programs for illegal and unsustainable toxic waste export practices, the Basel Action Network (BAN) found four of six electronic waste LCDs were exported to a developing country following a donation to the Dell/Goodwill partnership known as Dell Reconnect. The latest export of four monitors, from a Washington D.C. Goodwill store via the global used textile trading company, Whitehouse & Schapiro, LLC, to Guatemala represent the third time BAN has found the Dell/Goodwill Reconnect program exporting e-waste in likely violation of the importing country's laws and Dell's own corporate policy. Under the Basel Convention, it is illegal for Guatemala to receive any hazardous wastes such as electronic waste from the United States.

Report cover from 2016. BAN once again finds Dell's signature e-Waste take back program -- reconnect, shuttling the public's e-waste to developing countries rather than recycling it here in the USA as promised.

"The track record of Dell and Goodwill's ability to enforce their policy and international law has not been a good one," said Jim Puckett, BAN Executive Director from Seattle. "One can make claims of caring about an issue, but the proof is in the pudding. This latest finding, after two other instances of such carelessness or disregard, is a great disappointment and should be a call for a rigorous corporate action."

Export of electronic waste to developing countries has been widely condemned as it is most often used as a means to externalize costs and harm to substandard and highly dangerous scrap operations. China and Thailand and other countries have now banned the importation of electronic waste.

All Reconnect program electronic waste is supposed to go directly to Dell recycling partners and never be exported or sent anywhere else. However, in this case of six broken mercury lamp back-lit LCD computer monitors fitted with GPS trackers that BAN delivered to a Washington DC Goodwill store, never went through the proper Dell recycling process. Four of the monitors ended up going to Guatemala City, Guatemala and two others to solid waste disposal companies in Maryland.

According to Dell, who BAN contacted following this most recent export event, Goodwill has claimed that the flat screens must have been accidentally put into a bin full of used textiles. The Goodwill of Greater Washington organization stated that they would take two corrective actions -- first requiring Whitehouse and Schapiro (the likely exporter) to set aside any found electronics and, secondly they agreed to refresh the training of their employees. For their part, Dell will work with Goodwill Industries International, Inc. to ensure participating Reconnect partners follow proper processes.

In May of 2016 after BAN's first large scale exercise using GPS trackers to track e-waste in the United States, BAN published the report Disconnect: Goodwill and Dell Exporting the Public's E-waste to Developing Countries. The study found 6 Dell/Goodwill program trackers being exported to developing countries. In June of 2017, BAN subsequently found three more devices deposited at a Dell Reconnect Goodwill store, exported to two developing countries. As a result of that second discovery, Dell agreed to engage with BAN in a GPS tracking project which was announced publicly in a press release by BAN and by Dell and completed in 2018.

BAN continues to use GPS Trackers on a regular basis to ensure downstream due diligence of e-waste movements and makes use of them as a verification tool in their own ethical Electronics Recycling Certification -- e-Stewards, supported by industry leaders including Samsung, LG, Vizio, and Sony. Additionally, they offer a commercially available tracking service known as EarthEye.

Read the Investigative Report.

For more information contact:

Jim Puckett
Director, Basel Action Network
Email: jpuckett@ban.org