And the beat goes on; sadly, it's a toxic rhythm of deception in our industry. Another day, another recycler, another lie.
An Illinois court dismissed a defamation suit by Intercon Solutions against the Basel Action Network (BAN) in 2012. The lawsuit was lodged after the environmental watchdog group caught and reported Intercon Solutions exporting electronic scrap to Hong Kong in March of 2011 and subsequently denied their application to join BAN's prestigious e-Stewards Certification program, says BAN citing their own report.
"BAN had photographed intermodal shipping containers at Intercon's secure yard that then quickly travelled by rail and ship to China. One of those containers was opened by Hong Kong authorities and found it to contain contraband e-waste. Despite this, Intercon asserted that the container photographed and tracked from their yard was not theirs and continued to claim to their customers that they never exported electronic waste. BAN shows substantial evidence of not just one, but 167 containers exported in likely contravention of international, Chinese, and U.S. law."
Recycling costs money. That's the reality. If your recycler isn't reporting this cost transparently, and either charging you or offsetting the cost in some other way, you need to ask questions - no matter how green their marketing rhetoric is.
Says Jim Puckett, BAN Director: "There are many other Intercons out there. We therefore urge consumers and businesses to never expect recycling to be done for free and to seek out only recyclers certified to the e-Stewards Standard. In this way you can be sure that your old TV or computer does not end up poisoning the earth or workers at home or abroad."