(re) blog: dialogue with Redemtech

Redemtech to China: Outsource This!

Robert Houghton — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 07:12:49 -0800

During a recent visit to our Reno TCM Center, we recognized Nevada Senator John Ensign’s efforts as an environmentalist, and his work towards improving digital access for disabled Americans, by presenting him with a “Serious Good Champion” award. Serious Good™ is Redemtech’s initiative to encourage corporate and government institutions to donate, and refurbish, their surplus IT to help address the growing Digital Divide. As an elected representative of a state with 14.5 percent unemployment, the Senator did not suspect that he was visiting one of the nation's most successful demonstrations for INSOURCING jobs in a critical industry – electronics recycling.

Ironically, after pioneering the digital revolution, U.S. manufacturers, resellers, and users ignored the need for responsible management of end-of-life electronics. Instead, we shipped the growing tide of obsolete gadgets to developing countries where cottage recycling operations recover the steel, copper and precious metals crudely, cheaply, but at great expense to the environment and human health. From the beginning, we, as a country, outsourced an entire industry that should have been ours.

There have been outposts like Redemtech and a few others who have made responsible domestic recycling a cornerstone value proposition (something Gartner recognizes in its Magic Quadrant for IT Asset Disposition). We have worked hard to find customers who care, and thankfully their numbers are increasing. But the fact remains that "recyclers" who export electronic scrap, or e-waste, have lower costs and require negligible capital investment. And many customers still choose the lowest cost recycler, regardless of how their material will be managed; after all, e-waste exports are still perfectly legal from this country, even if their import is illegal in the many receiving countries. The consequence has been very slow growth of a domestic recycling infrastructure.

When discussing truly responsible recycling (see this e-waste recycling standards comparison) with customers who are ambivalent about exports, I am reminded of the conversations we often had 10 years ago about data security. Some post-Y2K customers were skeptical that data contained in their surplus equipment would be of interest to anyone, and therefore not worth erasing. That perspective changed with the advent of federal privacy regulations such as HIPAA and Gramm-Leach-Bliley. Everyone's identity is better protected as a consequence.

Federal e-waste export regulations will have an even greater constructive effect, motivating both responsible behavior, and creating the necessary conditions for development of a robust electronics recycling infrastructure. And jobs. We told Senator Ensign about our strong support for federal law limiting e-waste exports, such as that proposed by Representatives Thompson and Greene. A companion bill will be sponsored by Sherrod Brown, Ohio, in the Senate.

Ending the toxic e-waste trade, enabling the development of an entire industry, creating thousands of jobs and making our consumption of electronics more sustainable – at negligible cost to the consumer – sounds like a great business case for real regulation.

‘Tis the Season for Serious Good - The Business Case for Giving IT

Robert Houghton — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 07:01:12 -0800

Once companies discovered that their brand value depends partly on the strength of their relationship with the communities where they operate, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) was born, and philanthropy became a mainstream business practice. Good.

In a recent survey, 57% of companies report donating surplus IT equipment to charity. Unfortunately, these gifts are often made without proper refurbishing, licensed software or technical support, and without any measurement of the impact of the donation—more like throwing money in the street than investing in someone’s future. Not nearly good enough.

Internet access is the modern dial tone. Thus the costs of digital exclusion are large, so the potential benefits of gifting surplus IT are truly great. A 2010 study by the Digital Impact Group estimates the cost of digital exclusion in the United States at $55 billion per year. Some 28 million households—80 million Americans—are without a computer or Internet access, impacting families’ ability to do homework, access job search resources, reference healthcare information, be online consumers and generally stay connected to civil society. If connectivity facilitates prosperity, then the macro economic benefits of closing the digital divide are obvious.

But the strategic benefits to companies that donate computers are often as easy to identify. Providing services to an online banking customer comes at a small fraction of the cost of a doing the same thing with a human, not to mention selling insurance, or even educating children. Advertising electronically is so much more efficient than traditional media, marketing departments should be calling for a computer in every pot. Widespread digital inclusion puts the commerce in e-commerce.

A company’s reputation in the community, measured by the attitudes of its customers and employees, is so vital to the value of its brand it’s no wonder that CSR has become a boardroom priority. Virtually every major company has CSR objectives, but when donations of IT are handled ad hoc, without connecting them to larger enterprise priorities, the full potential of the gift goes unrealized. Redemtech’s Serious Good™ initiative is designed to guarantee the value of technology gifts for both the donor and the recipient.

Serious Good begins with collaboration between CSR, Marketing and IT—a starting point which broadens IT’s strategic relevance to the business before the first donation is made. An impactful technology donation requires technical support on the ground, so Redemtech has partnered with Habitat for Humanity, TechSoup Global and Per Scholas to provide distribution, training and support resources. Our status as a Microsoft Authorized Refurbisher allows us to provide genuine, supported software for pennies. And since technology gifts don’t last forever, Redemtech provides free take-back and recycling services with every donation.

Our Serious Good whitepaper, Giving: The Most Strategic IT Asset Disposition, details best practices for ensuring that IT donations are a strategic disposition of corporate surplus, and not a mere giveaway. It also describes the Giving ROI, which is a framework to account for the value of every gift. As we enter the season of Windows 7 migrations, there has never been a better time to reevaluate IT asset disposition strategies to better include the most strategic of all dispositions—giving.

Lies, Damn Lies, and Electronics Recycling

Robert Houghton — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 09:55:22 -0700

We have all been misled by the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ electronics recycling business, UNICOR. "Overall, we found a culture at UNICOR that did not sufficiently value worker safety and environmental protection" says the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General (OIG) in its October 2010 report. Despite the Federal Prison Industries’ oft-repeated claims of OSHA compliance and environmental responsibility, the OIG found “numerous violations of health, safety and environmental laws, regulations, and Bureau of Prisons policies." And the UNICOR stain on the promise of responsible e-waste recycling spreads far beyond those few corporations that contract with them directly.

UNICOR is the downstream processor of choice for numerous IT asset recovery vendors serving corporate clients. It seems like a win-win proposition: the costs are very low, prisoners are learning job skills, and UNICOR has always warranted that it conforms to all OSHA and environmental regulations, even claiming—falsely—not to export e-waste. On the strength of such assertions, IT asset disposition service providers subcontracting to UNICOR feel entitled to promise domestic e-waste recycling to their customers. Just don’t ask for too many details.

UNICOR’s reputation is burnished by the fact that it is virtually part of the federal government. No surprise that the U.S. government, the largest IT user in the world, uses UNICOR as its default electronics recycler. There are reputable recycling companies on the GSA schedule, but federal prisoner recycling is free to government agencies—at least it seems so when the costs of operating responsibly are externalized at the expense of inmate health and safety, community exposure to hazardous waste, and the dumping of toxic e-waste on developing countries.

Taxpayers who believe that the government should abide by the same rules as the private sector will be pleased that the OIG reports operating conditions at UNICOR have recently improved with a change of management. After a decade of lies, it is reasonable to question whether UNICOR deserves a second chance under new management with the same old oversight. It is also reasonable to question whether a public agency should sponsor a business which by its very existence inhibits the development of the domestic electronics recycling infrastructure this country so desperately needs.

It has been Redemtech’s policy for more than 10 years not to allow the use of prison labor anywhere in our supply chain. As a e-Stewards Certified Recycler, we are independently audited for conformance to our promise of responsible e-waste recycling.

The Value of NOT Giving Customers What They Ask

Robert Houghton — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 18:24:41 -0700

People turn to Gartner for all sorts of IT guidance. Their most well read research on specific industries is their Gartner Magic Quadrant, and now they’ve introduced a Magic Quadrant for the IT asset disposition (ITAD) industry, placing Redemtech in a prominent position in the leaders quadrant. We are proud of this objective validation of our business which we founded on unorthodox ideas that have since become ITAD industry standards. The Gartner Magic Quadrant for North America Information Technology Disposition inspires us to push Redemtech to be even more innovative—to continue working on our customers’ problems-in-waiting.

Redemtech a Leader in Gartner Magic Quadrant for North America
IT Asset Disposition

This is contrary to a salesperson's instincts, which are to offer the customer exactly what they want. If this had been our approach, there would be no Redemtech. We defined end-of-life asset reporting before there was IT asset disposition let alone widespread IT asset management; we created an end-to-end data security solution before there were privacy regulations; and we have delivered an accountable e-waste management system in advance of anti-export laws and carbon limiting regulations. There are many more examples.

Every innovation requires us to sell our customers a service they’ve never bought before, or asks them to adopt some new policy or procedure. Being evangelists isn’t easy, but we aim to ensure our customers are never left scrambling to respond to some new risk or opportunity—and there are many of both in IT. Best practices from innovation yield efficiency, too; there is money to be saved, and Redemtech customers should expect continuous improvement.

Of course, most of the credit for Redemtech innovation goes to the customers themselves. We are grateful when customers welcome us into their organizations and allow us to learn their business. And we are privileged when customers collaborate with us to understand how we can help them become more competitive.

Our customers, as much as Redemtech, should revel in our lofty placement. We welcome you to download the full Gartner Magic Quadrant for North America IT Asset Disposition report and watch our video as we reflect on what it means to be a leader in the IT asset disposition industry.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Gartner, Inc. This report was developed independently by Gartner Research as a part of its syndicated Research offering.

The Magic Quadrant for North America Information Technology Asset Disposition by Rob Schafer, 30 September 2010 is available upon request from Redemtech here.

Delivering On the Promise of Responsible Recycling―In Europe

Robert Houghton — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 03:10:21 -0700

Our friends in Europe led the way toward responsible electronics recycling by implementing the WEEE Directive regulating all forms of electronic waste in the European Union. Unfortunately, mere laws and good intentions have done little to stem the tide of toxic ewaste flowing from the EU into developing countries, particularly to western Africa.

Sham recyclers were quick to improve their paperwork to be WEEE compliant, then continued profiting from the export of innumerable tons of electronics rather than recycling as promised. While socially responsible companies are careful to write contracts requiring proper recycling, many have their policies thwarted by these fraudulent processors. Such deceit is almost impossible for auditors without ewaste recycling expertise to expose―which is why Redemtech has argued for many years in favor of an independently audited certification for recyclers, built on a global ISO framework, and rigorous enough to hold us all accountable.

We are therefore proud of the announcement today that Redemtech U.K. has been designated as the first Certified e-Steward in Europe. Built on an ISO 14001 framework, e-Stewards Certification is the most rigorous recycling standard worldwide. Redemtech changed none of our recycling practices to become certified; we were already doing the right thing in all of our facilities. But now with independent certification by an international certifying body (AQA International), our performance as a responsible and ethical recycler is more than our mission and claim. It is a verified fact that customers can count on.

Momentum Building for e-Stewards Standard

Robert Houghton — Thu, 06 May 2010 05:54:44 -0700

In the weeks since the e-Stewards Electronics Recycling Standard launch on April 15 (listen to the press conference audio recording here), we have received a great deal of positive feedback from our customers, prospects and other key stakeholders. The response validates our view that the e-Stewards Standard is good news for every enterprise concerned with fulfilling the best intentions embodied in its corporate e-waste recycling policy.

As part of our outreach, we developed a document that provides a side-by-side comparison of the e-Stewards Standard against R2. While some organizations have looked at this comparison from a strictly environmental standpoint, we focused on business strategy – “Which would be better for the enterprise customers we serve?” We agree with most of the stated objectives of both standards, but from our careful examination of the details of each, Redemtech believes only e-Stewards will deliver the outcome that our customers demand – and that point of view is reflected in the document.

One reader responded to us that the document seems “biased.” We proudly plead guilty. Our point of view is shaped by the numerous documented examples of recyclers pretending to be green while exporting e-waste. We understand that, compared to responsible recycling, how much more profitable export can be. We are persuaded that a recycling standard failing to close all the loopholes will create false credibility that unscrupulous recyclers will exploit to full advantage. We have leveraged Redemtech’s reputation to support the e-Steward Standard because we believe that R2 is not a good alternative for an industry with a checkered reputation.

In response to some questions we’ve received in the wake of the launch of the e-Stewards standard, we wanted to respond to some additional questions and concerns we have heard.

Does e-Stewards Certification cost too much? No. There are some wildly inaccurate claims floating around about the cost to become certified. The cost is on a progressive scale, so small recyclers pay a much lower cost than larger organizations. For Redemtech, the e-Stewards licensing fees are comparable to the cost of attending one modest trade show.

Is there really a difference in the guidance the two standards provide to auditors? Yes – a very significant difference. In addition to the Standard itself, the e-Stewards Standard utilizes a separate Guidance Document designed to be more dynamic than the Standard, allowing revisions to be made as technology changes. The best practices described by the e-Stewards Standard and Guidance Document combined run more than 100 pages compared to the 15-page R2 standard. Both standards offer training for the certifying auditors, but it is hard to imagine how the training for R2 auditors can be more thorough than the documentation itself.

If R2 complies with U.S. law, why does global certification embodied in the e-Stewards Standard really matter? As written, R2 is provincial to the United States, and does not prevent violations of the Basel Convention that regulates the shipment of e-waste between countries. The e-Stewards Standard is based on an ISO 14001 framework, and is compliant with all international laws and treaties. Redemtech certified our U.S. locations first, and are under contract with our certifying body to have all international locations certified in short order, starting in Europe.

Isn’t R2 a ‘safer’ standard to adopt since it is sanctioned by the EPA? Contrary to the explicit claims of some R2 recyclers, the R2 standard is not endorsed by the U.S. EPA. Quoted in Recycling Today, Thea McManus, associate director of the Resource Conservation and Sustainability division of the EPA, says the agency does not own the [R2] standard. “As a federal agency, the EPA cannot endorse any particular standard…” she said. More than 60 environmental organizations have endorsed the e-Stewards Standard. A growing list of large businesses has pledged only to use e-Stewards recyclers. Redemtech is proud to stand with some of the best vendors in the industry supporting e-Stewards.

Interested parties should compare the two standards for themselves. The e-Stewards Standard is available free, without the ISO licensed content, at www.e-Stewards.org. R2 is also free, at www.decideagree.com/R2%20Document.pdf.

From my perspective, the launch of the e-Stewards Standard is a watershed moment for our industry and the efforts to protect the environment. We will continue to keep you informed as this debate continues in the months ahead.

'Hoping for the Best' Ends Today With Launch of e-Stewards Standard

Robert Houghton — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 09:04:08 -0700

Anyone with good PowerPoint skills can pretend to be an IT services provider. Likewise, someone who rents a warehouse and installs a shredder can claim to be an electronics recycler. One of these popped up in Columbus recently, started by two guys in commercial real estate with lots of unrented property and time on their hands.

However, finding a qualified recycler has been a challenge for environmentally minded companies that care. The electronics recycling industry has earned its untrustworthy reputation. The media has thoroughly documented that many e-cyclers are willing to display a green façade while exporting toxic e-waste to developing countries. And because of the arcane and complex nature of electronics recycling, if a service provider wants to cheat, it’s practically impossible for corporate auditors to catch them.

Ten years ago, one of Redemtech’s best customers led us to our mission to be the most environmentally responsible company in our industry. We hired experts and developed systems to manage the fully accountable and completely transparent disposition of e-waste. We were among the first companies to sign the Electronics Recycler’s Pledge of True Stewardship developed by the Basel Action Network (BAN) because it virtually matched what we were already doing. We lobbied BAN for an independently audited certification of Pledge signers, urging that they replace the “honor system” with rigorous inspection to ensure customer requirements for responsible recycling would be met.

Redemtech invested significant time and money in the development of the e-Stewards® Electronic Recycling Certification standard, announced today, so that customers relying on our industry to do the right thing would have an alternative to “hoping for the best” after choosing a recycler.

To achieve e-Stewards Certification, companies must complete a rigorous, thorough certification audit – three days per facility, performed by an independent, specially trained auditor using an ISO 14001 framework. Many recyclers will be incapable of passing such an audit without drastically altering their businesses. The audits of our facilities were completed easily, and Redemtech will be the first certified e-Stewards Recycler with all of its U.S. operations certified. Our international locations are next, starting in Europe, then Canada and Mexico.

If companies concerned with responsible management of their e-waste want to stop hoping and start knowing, here’s what they should do:

• Choose an e-Stewards Recycler, and use only certified recycling facilities.
• Enroll to become an e-Stewards Enterprise by signing a commitment to only use e-Stewards Recyclers for electronics recycling.
• Communicate the importance of proper recycling to your organization, and the reasons for using the e-Stewards Standard.

The official launch of the e-Stewards Standard today is good news for every enterprise concerned with fulfilling the best intentions embodied in its corporate e-waste recycling policy. For those that choose to take the important step of becoming e-Stewards Enterprise – thanks for caring.

The E-Stewards vs. R2 Debate: Make the Choice to Stop E-Waste Exports

Robert Houghton — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 05:39:23 -0800

A guest column I authored for GreenerComputing “What Is – and What Isn’t – Responsible Recycling,” touches on the critical issues businesses must consider in choosing between two competing electronics recycling standards ostensibly intended to clean up an industry that’s proven over the years to be anything but trustworthy.

On the surface, the two standards seem to dictate many of the same outcomes—reuse first, recycle next and provide accountable control over toxic substances domestically and abroad. Anyone who digs a bit deeper will understand why Redemtech has strongly supported the e-Stewards Certification over the “Responsible Recycling” R2 alternative.

As Matthew Wheeland commented in the GreenerComputing e-newsletter, “There are some big differences, and companies looking for truly responsible recycling may be in for a big shock if they don't read the fine print.”

My GreenerComputing post provides only a high-level overview of the distinctions between R2 and e-Stewards. Redemtech will be publishing a detailed comparison of the fifteen page R2 standard versus the 116 pages of the e-Steward Certification and Guidance documents in the near future. What the scant R2 standard leaves unspecified and undefined, unscrupulous recyclers will certainly exploit to continue their toxic practices.

The e-Stewards ISO 14001 framework, developed under the auspices of the Basel Action Network (BAN), ensures organizations are not contributing to global pollution, endangering human health or putting critical data at risk, and that they are fully compliant with international law. To ensure this level of corporate social responsibility, e-Stewards focus on three key principles:

Recycling instead of landfill or incineration
No exports of e-waste to developing countries
Zero prison labor allowed anywhere in the supply chain

As a starting point for our upcoming comparison, let’s look at how these two standards compare with regard just to the above principles.

Issue 1: Disposal of e-waste in landfills and incinerators

e-Stewards: Strict guidelines that keep e-waste out of solid waste disposal facilities, with one exception (cleaned, phosphor-free leaded glass is allowed in lined, leachate-controlled landfills as a last resort, if allowed by law).

R2: Offers a major loophole, stating that whenever there are “circumstances beyond the recycler’s control,” e-waste can go to “land disposal” or incineration. In what circumstances would this be permitted? It could be just about anything – the R2 standards do not specify. It’s an open invitation for unethical recyclers to landfill or burn e-waste.

Issue 2: Banning e-waste exports to developing countries

e-Stewards: Yes

R2: No. While R2 calls for exports “only to countries that legally accept them,” it relies on the recyclers themselves to determine legality. R2 permits the export of untested equipment if it is designated for refurbishment by a qualified supplier—another invitation to continue the toxic trade in electronic scrap.

Issue 3: Prohibit use of prison labor for e-waste recycling

e-Stewards: Yes

R2: No. The federal government and many commercial recyclers use prison labor for much of their e-waste recycling. The prisons have a well-documented history of work area contamination, and uncontrolled toxin exposures.

Stay tuned for the detailed side-by-side comparison. We welcome you to join our free News Bureau service to have information related to the responsible management of electronics and data delivered to your inbox. Sign up here.

The large manufacturers and scrap metal recyclers association (ISRI) are well funded, and committed to R2, so the debate is just getting started. Companies can count on a rigorous certification program to save vendor audit costs and reduce their compliance risks—if the certification standard unambiguously supports their corporate policy. This is no time for loopholes.

Cultivating the Stakeholder Value Tree

Robert Houghton — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:02:49 -0800

Holistic enterprise value—really superior returns from an asset management and IT asset disposition program—depend upon including a number of key stakeholders in the process. Last Monday, Nov. 9, Redemtech presented “Cultivating the Stakeholder Value Tree” to an audience at the Gartner IT Finance, Procurement and Asset Management Summit in Orlando. Included was a case study on using philanthropy as a disposition strategy, including material presented by Habitat for Humanity International.

The following questions were received from the audience:

What are the top three challenges to putting into practice redeployment as part of the process for ITAM?

The overwhelming challenge is to gain user acceptance. People have been conditioned to want a “shiny new one.” For a redeployment program to work, used equipment must be refurbished to a sufficiently high cosmetic standard to provide the user with a like-new experience. This includes not only the equipment itself, but the packaging and support materials. No program can succeed that does not keep the end user happy.

Effective redeployment programs must always be supported by company policy, i.e., refurbished equipment is used before buying new gear. Executive support is necessary to establish and enforce the policy framework that will make a meaningful redeployment program possible.

Communication of redeployment benefits is a critical part of maintaining executive support, and sustaining end user adoption. Communication should be regular and quantitative to reinforce the business case for redeployment, including both the financial and environmental benefits of reuse.

Are there other stakeholders besides those you listed?

Every company is different, but the key stakeholders should at least include IT, procurement, finance, security, EH&S, Community Affairs/CSR, ITAM and facilities. Additionally, anyone who is a champion for some related cause or initiative should be included. For example, one Redemtech customer has a senior executive responsible for the company’s “green” initiative taking part in its key stakeholder meetings alongside the EH&S folks.

How do I convince my manager to donate? He thinks it’s too risky because of all the data protection laws.

First of all, establish the business case for donation as part of your company’s IT disposition strategy. Enlist the Community Affairs/CSR stakeholder to help quantify the benefits of philanthropy, and perhaps to provide budgetary support.

The risk of technology donations is no different than that from remarketing the same equipment. Rigorous processes and audit mechanisms must be in place to ensure that data protection and end-of-life data destruction is virtually 100% reliable. Depending on how the contract is structured, outsourcing the process to a company like Redemtech can transfer a significant amount liability for data protection to the vendor.

Donations of equipment do create additional risk for compliance with federal environmental laws. Since those liabilities are “joint and several” with every downstream owner of the hardware, to a certain degree companies remain on the hook for proper disposal, even after the donation. That is why Redemtech provides recipients of all donations with free take-back and recycling as a standard part of our donations service offering.

Do you refurbish/upgrade and redeploy PCs back to the same company?

Refurbishment and redeployment of equipment for further use inside the company is one of the instrumental ways that ITAM can contribute material value back to the enterprise. Every change event is an opportunity to either incur cost or create value, and only asset management can take advantage of those opportunities to optimize the ROI of the hardware portfolio. Redemtech refurbishes and redeploys many thousands of assets each month across all hardware platforms, from the desktop to the data center, saving our customers literally millions of dollars in deferred capital expense and reduced cost of ownership.

Is there a “break point” as far as organization size to be able to benefit from reuse?

Every organization will become financially and environmentally more sustainable by extending hardware lifecycles and reusing equipment instead of purchasing new whenever possible. Very often, small business adopts these sound principles out of necessity; now is a very opportune time for larger companies to practice greater thrift.

This is new to us—how do you get stakeholders to the table? Who’s best to initiate it?

Either Asset Management or IT is the natural instigator of the key stakeholder process. Stakeholders will be interested and willing to get involved once they understand the value they can personally derive from their participation. Redemtech can help with initial overtures by providing a template from our experience with other similar businesses to create compelling invitations to join the process. Once stakeholder engagement is under way, its results are by far the most convincing argument for the holdouts to join in.

What kind of equipment does Habitat accept?

Habitat accepts donations of relatively modest desktop PCs, notebooks and display devices. Since the objective for the equipment is to allow a family to get connected to the Internet, processor and memory requirements are not great.

E-waste Exports ARE Dumping

Robert Houghton — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:39:15 -0700

Now that an ewaste export ban has been drafted in Congress, opponents are adding a new twist to an old argument to justify their toxic trade; they claim that THEIR ewaste exports only go to responsible recyclers in developing countries, and that such legal sales must be permitted AS A MATTER OF FREE TRADE. This position is tantamount to asking for license to dump hazardous ewaste in jurisdictions where the locals have no recourse for the toxic exposure they suffer.

Electronics "recycling" does happen in places like China, Nigeria, Viet Nam, and India, but it is frequently rudimentary, generating hazardous emissions without adequate means to deal with them. Whatever materials are not easily recovered are dumped or burned, releasing a toxic scourge. The damage done by western ewaste to worker health and the environment in such destinations has been well documented by the Basel Action Network and others. The corporate market has responded by generally requiring that ewaste be recycled domestically, yet the average corporate procurement process often pressures prices so low that recyclers cannot do so profitably. Consumers would likely choose a responsible recycler, but must trust the integrity of those who operate collection events and other takeback schemes.

Trust has proven NOT to be an effective strategy with the electronics recycling industry, as the Western Pennsylvania Humane Society discovered in June at their free collection event. Their recycler, EarthEcycle, is merely the latest poster child for an entire industry The financial incentives to export ewaste rather than process it responsibly are irresistable to most recyclers--after all, it's not against the law.

People are learning about the problem thanks to BAN, 60 Minutes and Frontline. But the growing outrage at the human and environmental damage caused by this toxic trade will not result in a solution until three conditions are met: 1) It must be illegal to export ewaste to a developing country; 2) There must be independent certification of responsible e-recyclers, which is why Redemtech supports the e-Steward certification program; and, 3) Users must recognize that there is a small cost to responsible end-of-life management of their electronics, and be willing to pay it.