Don't recycle 'e-waste' with haste, activists warn

USA TODAY, July, 2008 by G. Jeffrey MacDonald

Consumers saddled with old cellphones, TVs and computers are flocking to electronics recycling events, which have sprung up in more than 1,000 communities over the past four years.

But don't be fooled, activists warn. Items collected at free events are sometimes destined for salvage yards in developing nations, where toxins spill into the water, the air and the lungs of laborers paid a few dollars per day to extract materials.

"If nobody is paying (the collectors) to take this stuff, especially if they're getting a lot of televisions, then they are very likely exporting because that's how they make the economics work," says Barbara Kyle, national coordinator of the Electronics TakeBack Coalition, a San Francisco-based advocacy group.

"E-waste," or...