Toxic Recycling (Page 3)

Research support for this article was provided by the Investigative Fund of The Nation Institute.

Because UNICOR works behind bars, it has another advantage over its competitors: It doesn't have to be prepared for unannounced OSHA inspections. And even though some factories opened in 1997, there were no OSHA inspections until 2004. The air tests in late 2004 found lead, barium and cadmium at Atwater--but below the levels at which OSHA requires the use of safety equipment. These test samples, however, were not taken around inmates "involved in the deliberate breaking of computer monitors," says the OSHA report. Even so, barium, beryllium, cadmium and lead were found on work surfaces; barium, cadmium and lead were found in the workers' dining area, creating the potential for accidental ingestion. But none of that violates OSHA standards. As the OSHA inspector noted, there are actually "no standards or regulatory levels for these metals on surfaces."

How toxic is the dust? Long-term exposure to low levels of cadmium damages kidneys and can lead to lung disease. Workers exposed to the levels of lead found in Atwater's air in 2002 would eventually have elevated blood lead levels--not enough to cause acute lead poisoning but plenty to cause kidney or neurological damage, according to leading environmental and occupational health scientists. "If a workplace has enough lead to fall near the OSHA standards, that would be enough to come home and pose a risk to children," says Howard Hu, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Inhalation exposure is the most dangerous in terms of getting lead into the body, Hu says. OSHA standards--and those now set by the EPA--likely allow far higher exposure than is truly safe. In fact, says Dr. Bruce Lanphear, director of the Children's Environmental Health Center at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, "there is no safe level."

Despite the recent surge of concern about data security, most people know little about where discarded digital equipment ends up. Great quantities of e-waste sent to domestic recyclers end up overseas--in China, Africa, Southeast and South Asia, and other developing regions--where much of it is processed cheaply, under unsafe and environmentally unsound conditions. To avoid this, many recyclers and their clients demand rigorous documentation of the downstream flow of dismantled equipment.

"Environmental stewardship and social responsibility are critical issues for our clients," says Robert Houghton of Redemtech, which recycles electronics for Fortune 500 companies. Redemtech considered working with UNICOR, Houghton told me, but chose not to because UNICOR could not provide the downstream accountability Redemtech's customers required.

UNICOR says that no material it recycles will be landfilled or exported for dumping. UNICOR's no-export policy prohibits shipping electronic waste to any country barred by the US government from receiving US products. These countries, UNICOR told me, are Cuba, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Libya, Sudan and Syria. But that leaves many countries to choose from, since US laws only prohibit exporting hazardous material destined for disposal--rather than recycling--or when it involves transfer of "sensitive" technology. "It's absolutely legal to send this stuff to Pakistan," says Houghton.

Much of what UNICOR recycles comes from the federal government, which buys about 7 percent of the world's computers and disposes of at least half a million each year. In 2002 the Defense Department sent some 17 million pounds of used electronics to UNICOR for recycling. UNICOR's website also lists several universities as clients. But some counted as customers no longer are--among them the University of Colorado, which wanted better documentation than UNICOR provided. Same with Johns Hopkins. "Using prison labor was not looked at very favorably," says a university employee who asked not to be named.

The United States is the only industrialized nation that uses prison labor for electronics recycling. "We can do without it, but are we willing to do without it?" asks Craig Lorch, whose company, Total Reclaim, is among the thirty or more that have pledged not to use prison labor. Until environmental and social benefits are given priority over the bottom line, UNICOR's low-cost option will continue to be used by the government and many others. But relying on workers who are not paid a living wage, and who work in unhealthy and environmentally unsound conditions, displaces rather than solves the e-waste problem. The long-term environmental costs cannot even be calculated. As long as the United States does not require transparency and accountability from recyclers, it will be impossible to know how these toxic materials are treated, or where they go.

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