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Today NextWorth, of Lawrence, Mass., which describes itself as a consumer electronics trade-in company, unveiled a program to receive old cell phones and other devices and pay out cash for them if they're still usable, or responsibly recycle them if they're not.

CEH report, Oct. 2006. In the past few years, the storm of complaints about UNICOR's recycling program from prisoners, prison guards, and others has brought these hidden sweatshops into public view. Since 1994, UNICOR has built a lucrative business that employs prisoners to recycle electronic waste (e-waste). A massive array of ewaste is largely hidden from view, as are the workers who handle the waste. Over 100,000 computers become obsolete in the U.S. every day. E-waste includes computers, personal digital assistants, TVs, and other electronic devices. E-waste is a doubleedged sword: it is rich in precious materials that can be recycled, but it also contains a cocktail of hazardous chemicals such as lead, mercury, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and cadmium. This report examines the e-waste recycling programs run by Federal Prison Industries (FPI), a government-owned corporation that does business under the trade name UNICOR.

An interview with recyclers in New York

"EPA's DfE Program and the Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Institute (TURI) entered into a voluntary partnership with representatives of the wire and cable industry to evaluate the environmental impacts of the current standard material formulations and alternative formulations. Specifically, the partnership used a life-cycle assessment approach to examine the impacts of heat stabilizers, polymer systems and flame retardants used in insulation and jacketing for selected wire and cable products. This information will address the information gap on the environmental impacts of the different materials used in wire and cable insulation, and help companies make environmentally sound product and material choices."

Hewlett Packard (HP), in collaboration with the Global Digital Solidarity Fund (DSF), and the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research (Empa), has launched a groundbreaking initiative to develop sustainable recycling processes to tackle the problem of e-waste in Africa. For the past two years, the initiative has been overseeing a pilot program facility in South Africa and conducting e-waste management assessment studies in both Kenya and Morocco; the goal of the assessments is ultimately to properly determine each country's ability to deal with the e-waste there, whether it arose from electronics that were purchased new within the country and are now reaching their end of life, or from electronics that were shipped illegally from other countries. The project has been examining efforts by both African governments and organizations to safely handle e-waste. The project has been compiling extensive information, such as the policy and legal framework in each country, standard settings for e-waste treatment, organizations and programs already in place to safely process e-waste, and the actual amounts of e-waste present. MediaGlobal article by Shefali Lall, 7/20/09.

"To address the information gap on the environmental impacts of leaded and lead-free solders, EPA's DfE Program entered into a voluntary partnership with representatives of the electronics industry and other interested parties to evaluate the environmental impacts of tin-lead and lead-free solders (see the Partners page of this website for more information on project partners). The partnership used a life-cycle assessment approach to examine the impacts of tin-lead, tin-copper, tin-silver-copper, and tin-silver-copper-bismuth solders. " Site includes general project information, milestones, publications and a list of partners.

"The DfE Printed Wiring Board (PWB) Partnership encouraged the use of technologies that improve both environmental performance and competitiveness of the PWB industry. Traditional methods for manufacturing PWBs: Use toxic chemicals, such as formaldehyde, that pose potential health and environmental risks; Use substantial amounts of water and energy;Generate large volumes of hazardous waste. The DfE Program partners, including the national PWB trade association, have examined alternative technologies that reduce or eliminate these impacts." Site includes general project information, findings & accomplishments, publications, and a list of partners.

Office of Technology Policy had a Roundtable in 2004 consisting of stakeholders. They examined recycling electronics.

In this article e-waste governance in the USA will be explored. More specifically, the voluntary collaborative initiatives that are taken at the federal level, in a context where a general regulatory framework is largely absent, will be examined.

Andy Sheehan of KDKA (Pittsburgh) interviews Jeff Nixon, owner of EarthECycle, an electronics recycling company that is the focus of recent expose by BAN and the Electronics TakeBack Coalition. Nixon denies any wrong doing and expresses his intent to conduct more e-waste fundraising events, such as the one examined in the BAN/ETBC report. (see http://www.ban.org/Library/PittsburghScam.pdf)