BAN to Develop Certification Program for Electronics Recyclers

The Basel Action Network (BAN), based in Seattle, and the Electronics TakeBack Coalition have joined with 32 electronics recyclers in the United States and Canada to announce that BAN’s e-Stewards program will soon be fully accredited and certified.

The e-Steward Certification will forbid the dumping of toxic e-scrap in developing countries, local landfills and incinerators; the use of prison labor to process electronic scrap; and the unauthorized release of private data contained in discarded computers.

“Unfortunately today, most of those companies calling themselves electronics recyclers are scammers,” Sarah Westervelt, BAN e-Stewards project coordinator says. “They simply load up containers of old computers and ship them off to China or Africa.”

Westervelt adds, “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 laborers or exported to developing countries.”

The e-Stewards announcement follows the airing of an exposé on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” Following the Trail of Toxic e-Waste; the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s recently aired “Electronic Dumping Ground;” and a recent episode of the French Canadian Program “Panorama,” Electronic Waste: The Hidden Face of Recycling. These programs reveal the improper processing of scrapped electronics in China and Africa that have been shipped from electronics recycling companies based in the U.S. and Canada.  

The Electronic TakeBack Coalition and BAN also are pursuing federal legislation to ban national exports. If the legislation passes, the audited certification program will serve as a strong enforcement tool, according to the organizations.

“The e-Stewards project is a response to the failure of government and industry to act as responsible global citizens in the age of information technology,” Jim Puckett, BAN executive director, says

The e-Stewards include 32 companies in 92 locations that have been qualified by BAN. By early 2010 the program will feature an ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board (ANAB) certification system with third-party auditing.

Fourteen recycling companies designated as e-Steward Founders provided the funding to create the certification program: Boliden AB, California Electronic Asset Recovery, Cascade Asset Management, ECS Refining, Electronic Recyclers International, GreenCitizen, Hesstech, Metech, Redemtech, RELectronics, the Surplus Exchange, Total Reclaim, Waste Management Recycle America and WeRecycle!

According to Westervelt, the R2 guidelines recently released by the U.S. Evinvironmental Protection Agency do not directly address export concerns. She adds that while the guidelines appear to be thorough upon first glance, the R2 designation is not a true differentiator.