California e-waste program a model gone wrong
July 22nd, 2010 | 
Author: Posted at 05:52 PM on Sunday, Jul. 18, 2010
hamezcua@sacbee.com – Boxes are filled to the brim with computer monitors and televisions at ECS Refining in Santa Clara. California opted for a government-run e-waste program. Other states have shunned that model.
It seemed a perfect symmetry: California, the world’s high-tech capital, would lead the way in recycling the debris of our digital revolution.
But five years after its launch, the state government-run electronic waste program stands out not as a model of the green innovation for which California is famous but as an example of good intentions gone awry.
By paying more than $320 million to collect and recycle computer monitors and televisions, the state has built a magnet for fraud totaling tens of millions of dollars, including illegal material smuggled in from out of state.
“I don’t think anybody could have forecast the greed that has poisoned the program,” said Bob Erie, chief executive officer of E-World Recyclers north of San Diego and once an enthusiastic supporter of the state effort.
California officials have long been aware of the problems with their approach, too; they met with recycling industry officials two years ago at a private club in Los Angeles to discuss solutions, including whether the state should be in the e-waste business at all.
But nothing has changed. Instead, The Bee found:
– Recyclers and collectors have submitted $23 million in faulty and fraudulent e-waste claims that have been rejected by the state. But state and industry officials estimate that other ineligible claims, totaling as much as $30 million, may have inadvertently been paid.
Read more: http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/07/18/2010112/californias-pioneering-e-waste.html#ixzz0uQ7NuQnb
Posted in 
Tags: 
