Recyclers sign up to tackle eWaste scam

As the repeated exposés of IT and electronic waste ending up in illegal and environmentally hazardous scrap yards in the developing world confirm, knowing which waste handling firm to trust with your old kit is a significant challenge wherever your business operates.

It is all the more difficult in North America, where lax eWaste laws make it even easier than in Europe for irresponsible "recyclers" to export scrap electronics to locations in the developing world, where they are typically broken down in illegal and hazardous conditions.

Chemicals and eWaste lobby groups the Basel Action Network and the Electronics TakeBack Coalition have moved to address the problem by beefing up the e-Stewards certification programme for responsible eWaste recyclers to incorporate independent auditing and accreditation of those firms carrying the label.

The voluntary e-Steward certification, which is carried by 32 US and Canadian electronics recyclers, requires firms to ensure no eWaste is dumped in developing countries, local landfills or incinerators; that prison labour is not used to process the waste; and that private data contained in discarded computers is not released.

The Basel Action Network said that while the scheme had already proved successful, it would be tightened further from early 2010 to include third party auditing of those firms carrying the certification.

Sarah Westervelt, e-Stewards project co-ordinator at the Basel Action Network, said that the certification scheme was required to provide independent assurance that eWaste firms are adhering to environmental best practices.

"Unfortunately today, most of those companies calling themselves electronics recyclers are scammers," she said. "They simply load up containers of old computers and ship them off to China or Africa. By choosing an e-Steward recycler, consumers and large businesses are assured that their old computers and TVs will be safely managed and not simply tossed into a local landfill, processed unsafely by prison labourers, or exported to developing countries."

The Basel Action Network and the Electronics TakeBack Coalition are also hoping that the scheme can provide the foundations for new eWaste legislation in the US that will make it illegal for firms to dump waste electronics in developing countries.

In September, a report from the US Government Accountability Office criticised the Environmental Protection Agency's failure to control harmful US eWaste exports, and called for "stronger enforcement and more comprehensive regulation" to tackle the problem.

Jim Puckett, executive director at the Basel Action Network, said that the group was working with the Electronics TakeBack Coalition to lobby for such legislation and that were it to be adopted, the e-Stewards certification could become formally endorsed by government.

He added that in the meantime, the scheme remained "a response to the failure of government and industry to act as responsible global citizens in the age of information technology".