Where does the e-waste from community recycling events really go?

It seems like a good idea. Companies and even local governments will often sponsor e-waste recycling events. You assume they’ve done their due diligence and happily drop offer your old electronics.

That’s what people in Denver thought last year as an army of cheerful volunteers unloaded a steady stream of dusty laptops, monitors and keyboards for a recycling event in honor of Earth Day. The recycling event looked like the perfect picture of environmental responsibility.

Unfortunately, that picture turned dark when reporters found workers at the company's Commerce City facility loading CRT monitors into a shipping container. The reporters tracked it to Hong Kong, where the government has banned the import of toxic e-waste, but the underground trade persists.

As we’ve repeatedly warned our clients and readers, some recyclers simply export containers full of electronics, in apparent violation of U.S. and foreign law, and with potentially devastating environmental and health consequences. The margins at community recycling events are often so small that recyclers will sell off the equipment with value and dump the rest. Free recycling sounds good, but sometimes you get what you pay for. 

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