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U.S. Prison E-Waste Recycling Plants

Some recyclers and many federal government agencies send their e-waste to recycling plants operating in one of eight federal prisons. The recycling facilities are operated by UNICOR, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the federal Department of Justice. By paying prison workers as low as 23 cents per hour, UNICOR underbids and undermines private commercial recyclers, who simply can't compete with UNICOR's low rates. But even more alarming is UNICOR's track record on worker health and safety issues (for inmates and prison staff) in the recycling shops. Following a staff whistle blower complaint, UNICOR is currently under investigation by the federal Inspector General.

Federal investigators recently found airborne levels of lead at 50 times the legal limits and cadmium at 450 times the federal legal limits at UNICOR's Elkton, Ohio facility.

UNICOR has e-waste recycling facilities in the following federal prisons:

• Atwater, CA
• Elkton, OH
• Ft. Dix, NJ
• Leavenworth, KS
• Lewisburg, PA
• Marianna, FL
• Texarkana, TX
• Tucson, AZ

The Answer: Producer Responsibility Legislation

What is Producer Responsibility?

Currently, state and local governments shoulder the burden of dealing with e-waste. Whether it's administering a collection and recycling system, building landfills, or cleaning up dumped waste on the side of the road, taxpayers are currently the ones paying for the exploding costs of e-waste.

Under a producer responsibility system, the manufacturers—not consumers or government—take responsibility for the environmentally safe management of their products when they are no longer useful or are discarded. Giving the manufacturers the financial responsibility for managing their old products gives them a strong incentive to redesign their products to remove the toxic materials that make recycling challenging and expensive. And unless we make the products less toxic, we will never be able to fully recycle the materials back into new products.

Some Companies Are Taking Responsibility Voluntarily

Many computer companies have voluntarily launched programs to take back and recycle our old products. Of the TV manufacturers, only Sony has a takeback program.

Legislation For Producer Responsibility

Many states are passing legislation mandating that manufacturers offer free e-waste collection and recycling programs as a condition of selling in their states. Twelve states plus New York City have passed producer responsibility laws. (Most of these passed in 2007 and 2008.) California also has a statewide program, but it is funded via consumer-paid fees, not by the manufacturers.

Twelve states (plus New York City) have passed producer responsibility laws:

• Connecticut
• Maine
• Maryland
• Minnesota
• New Jersey
• New York City
• North Carolina
• Oklahoma
• Oregon
• Texas
• Virginia
• Washington
• West Virginia

States considering producer responsibility laws in 2008:

• Hawaii
• Illinois
• Indiana
• Massachusetts
• Missouri
• Nebraska
• New Hampshire
• New York
• Rhode Island
• South Carolina
• Vermont
• Wisconsin

The Electronics TakeBack Coalition (formerly the Computer TakeBack Campaign) is a national coalition of organizations promoting sustainable and responsible practices throughout the high-tech electronics industry, to protect public health and the environment. Steering Committee Organizations are Basel Action Network, Center for Environmental Health, Clean Production Action, Clean Water Action, Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition and Texas Campaign for the Environment.

For More Information:

For more information on the e-waste issue, including the details of current state bills, and our "Facts and Figures on E-Waste."

Comments (1)

	1. 28-08-2008 13:22
	Excellent article. Well written and researched. Very accurate. We as an IT Community need to take the responsibility to properly dispose of our computing gear. This includes not just the information contained on drives, but the actual hardware itself. The impact our wonderful computers and monitors cause on landfills is awesome in scope. As an investor in an E-recycling firm, I have seen first hand the irresponsible nature of those that toss old computers like they would scrap paper. We have taken in computers from State, regional, national governments, and even military, laden with sensitive info. Its not just irresponsible, it is in some cases criminal to not dispose properly the hardware and the data enclosed. The reasonably proper disposal of IT gear, and Electronic Scrap is not difficult nor expensive. In fact, it can also have tax benefits!! If not, there should be rules, and laws accordingly. Guest

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