Robert Erie, CEO of E-World Recyclers in Vista, CA was criminally indicted in December of 2014 by a grand jury for conspiracy, trafficking in counterfeit goods, falsifying records, and lying to the government. He was subsequently arrested, released on bail, and pled guilty to the charges. The case is still pending a final judgement.
Read MoreFollowing a new discovery in the Port of Manila of yet another 48 containers of rotting household garbage illegally exported from Canada, environmental justice groups BAN Toxics, Seattle based Basel Action Network, and Greenpeace Philippines strongly condemned the Canadian government for "callous disregard of international law."
The newly discovered batch of containers has been sitting for over a year at the Manila International Container Port (MICP) and is just now undergoing abandonment proceedings under the Bureau of Customs. The consignee, Live Green Enterprise, failed to claim the shipment.
Read MoreInternational environmental organizations brought their protest against Canada for their refusal to take back the 50 shipment containers filled with household waste dumped in the Philippines almost two years ago. The groups raised the matter at a high-level meeting of the Basel Convention and marched from the meeting to the Permanent Mission of Canada, in Geneva, Switzerland.
Read MoreHere are more interesting reports on yet another irresponsible recycler - Stone Castle Recycling - and their enablers in Utah.
Read MoreBasel Action Network and our Philippines-based affiliate BAN Toxics strongly condemned the Canadian government today for violating the Basel Convention by refusing to repatriate more than 50 40-foot intermodal containers, each filled with household trash that were illegally exported from Canada almost two years ago.
Despite many requests by the Philippine government to return the waste as is required under international law, Canada is charged by the environmentalists with bullying the Philippines into finally accepting the waste.
Read MoreHere's the latest federal enforcement action against an e-waste trader. The trader pled guilty to being involved in exporting falsely-represented CRTs to China. He appears to have been a broker and not associated with any one recycling firm.
He faces a maximum penalty of $250,000 and 5 years in jail. BAN applauds this federal action to enforce even our inadequate laws to prevent unsustainable and damaging e-waste exports.
Read MoreWe announced today a new Performance Verification initiative to increase rigor and confidence in our e-Stewards® certification program, already considered to be the "gold standard" for responsible recyclers of electronics worldwide.
Performance Verification will involve random, unannounced, on-site facility inspections to verify ongoing day-to-day performance is meeting the e-Stewards Standard. The inspections will be in addition to the normal, prescribed yearly scheduled third-party audits accomplished by accredited certification bodies.
Read MoreThe e-waste recycler, E-Waste Systems, Inc. (EWSI), has abandoned its primary US-based recycling operations, leaving behind significant volumes of hazardous e-waste.
The Geneva, New York facility is no longer accepting materials and various e-waste collections events had been cancelled. Workers have not been paid since October 18, despite never receiving pink slips of termination. Due to failure to pay the rent, the landlord locked the doors on January 28.
Read MoreBasel Action Network has discovered that Diversified Recycling, an electronics recycler operating in Orlando, Florida and Norcross, Georgia, was recently engaged in transporting daily tractor-trailer loads of toxic TVs and computer monitors to a small warehouse operation where cathode ray tubes (CRTs) were smashed by hand and then dumped in a local construction landfill.
BAN also traced a trans-Atlantic container shipment of electronic waste containing non-functional LCD equipment from the same warehouse firm, known as Sarah’s Trading, to Asia. Both the dangerous smashing and the export and dumping of electronic waste are likely to violate numerous local, state, and federal laws.
Read MoreStone Castle Recycling, previously one of Utah's largest recyclers of electronic waste, has abandoned its three facilities and the owner is missing. The company has ceased all operations and has left behind several warehouses and yards filled with an estimated 7,600 tons of toxic electronic wastes and charred residues.
Read MoreBasel Action Network and our e-Stewards recycler/refurbisher certification program is currently undertaking two initiatives to promote responsible electronics refurbishment. The efforts are designed to reflect the environmental and social preference for longevity, reuse, and refurbishment of electronic equipment rather than disposal or recycling.
Read MoreCalifornia has the strictest e-waste laws in the nation, but a KPIX5 investigation discovered the strict laws have led to dumping CA's electronic junk in someone else’s backyard, causing serious damage.
A mountain in the Arizona desert that’s not on any map was discovered five years ago. A closer look reveals the mountain is made of glass from old TVs and monitors, full of lead and other toxic heavy metals. Most of it, some 41 million pounds, is from California.
Read MoreSamsung has finally made a public apology to the victims of a leukemia cluster at its chip plants and promised compensation for them — seven years after the SHARPS campaign borne out of the death of Hwang Yu-mi, the first publicly known victim of the cluster, and six months after stalled negotiations with the victims’ families and the advocate group.
Read MoreConcerned about a possible limitation on the ability of those exercising their right to free speech to avoid being harassed by frivolous but costly defamation lawsuits, major media outlets including National Public Radio, CNN, the Washington Post, Seattle Times, Chicago Tribune, Bloomberg, Dow Jones, and Time Magazine, filed an Amicus Brief last Friday supporting the appeal of the Basel Action Network (BAN).
BAN is a Seattle-based global environmental watchdog organization that was sued by an electronics recycler. In 2011, BAN spoke out against Chicago area electronics recycling firm, Intercon Solutions, after documenting the export of hazardous electronic waste from Intercon’s Chicago Heights facility to Hong Kong, China.
Read MoreBasel Action Network, well known for discovering the global dumping of electronic waste in Asia, has joined forces with CBS News in California to expose a new type of dumping, this time in Arizona.
BAN found three warehouses in Yuma, Arizona, holding what is believed to be more than 9 million pounds of abandoned toxic picture tubes from old TVs and computer monitors originally collected by the California state Recycling Program.
Dow Management, the alleged recycling company that held the glass in Yuma, has disappeared and the principals are nowhere to be found. Dow was paid more than $581,000 by California Recyclers to take the glass, who were in turn paid $3.6 million from a California legislated recycling fund.
Read MoreGlobal electronics and appliance innovator LG Electronics has received high praise from the toxic trade watchdog group Basel Action Network for ensuring that none of LG’s e-waste is exported to developing countries.
BAN applauded LG Electronics USA for confirming that all of its customer take-back programs and all of its own office equipment is recycled responsibly through certified e-Stewards® recyclers. LG is even in the process of certifying its own Service Center under the e-Stewards program.
Read MoreIn the wake of significant prison sentences of 14 and 30 months being handed down by U.S. District Court Judge William J. Martinez against the executives Tor Olson and Brandon Richter of Denver, Colorado's Executive, the toxic trade watchdog group, Basel Action Network, thanked the US Environmental Protection Agency and Homeland Security for their diligent prosecution. BAN warned consumers that the crime of e-waste exportation remains all too common.
Read MoreDeveloping countries joined forces this week to defeat attempts by electronic equipment manufacturers represented by the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) and industrialized powers including the European Union, US, Japan, and Canada to create loopholes that would allow repairable electronic waste to be exempt from the international Basel Convention hazardous waste trade control procedures.
Read MoreA record-breaking number 365 toxic-laden ships were sent for breaking by European shipowners to the beaches of South Asia in 2012, according to a list released today by the NGO Shipbreaking Platform, a global coalition of environmental, human rights and labor rights organisations working for safe and sustainable ship recycling. This number represents a 75% increase from 2011, when 210 EU-owned ships were sent for breaking in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Read MoreA trial by jury convicted Executive Recycling, formerly of Englewood, Colorado and two of its top executives in a Denver Federal Court this morning for illegally exporting hazardous waste electronics to developing countries. Executives Tor Olson and Brandon Richter were convicted of criminal charges for illegal export of hazardous waste, smuggling, obstruction of justice, and wire and mail fraud. Brandon Richter was the former owner and CEO of Executive, an electronics recycler that also had locations in Utah and Nebraska. Executive Recycling has since changed its name to Techcycle. The charges came after the Basel Action Network (BAN), a toxic trade watchdog organization, observed and photographed 20 seagoing containers leaving the Executive Recycling loading docks and tracked them overseas. BAN then gave the information to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Enforcement, the Government Accountability Office, and CBS News. Executive Recycling was then featured in a sting type investigation on CBS News' 60 Minutes in an episode entitled “The Wasteland” which followed one of Executive's containers to China with BAN's Executive Director Jim Puckett. Following that episode, EPA Enforcement and Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), indicted Executive Recycling on 16 criminal counts. BAN claims that the export activities of the company are still a very common practice in North America and most often companies get away with it.
“This conviction is very welcome, but sadly as we speak, there are many hundreds of other fake recyclers out there that are loading up Asian-bound containers full of our old toxic TVs and computers,” said Puckett. “Every day about 100 containers of toxic e-waste arrive in the Port of Hong Kong alone. We hope this conviction sends a very strong message to business and the public that they should only use the most responsible recyclers.”
To help the public make good choices for their electronic waste (e-waste), BAN joined forces with business leaders to create the e-Stewards Certification program. e-Stewards is the only electronic recycling certification program that ensures through annual audits that companies will never export hazardous wastes electronics to developing countries. Areas like Guiyu township in China have been seriously contaminated by toxic e-waste imports. Lead levels in the blood of children there are some of the highest in the world.
BAN also maintains that clear and strict legislation is needed to make such export activity explicitly illegal in the United States as it is in the rest of the world. According to BAN, prosecuting the Executive case was very difficult for the government as they were forced to make their case using fraud, smuggling, and other charges, as the environmental export laws we have are vague and ineffective. BAN has joined forces with the Electronics TakeBack Coalition, as well as the Coalition for American Electronics Recycling (CAER) in support of the bipartisan Responsible Electronics Recycling Act, which, if passed, will bring the US in compliance with international Basel Convention decisions forbidding export of hazardous electronic waste to developing countries.
“Executive Recycling was caught this time,” Puckett said, “but it has been almost impossible for the government to prosecute this kind of very common activity due to a lack of appropriate legislation. If we can pass the Responsible Electronics Recycling Act in Congress we could put a quick halt to the horrors of criminal waste trafficking.”
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