News

Telecommunications giant Comcast has agreed to pay the state of California a hefty sum for illegally disposing of e-scrap and other devices over the past decade and for failing to protect customer information. The cable TV and Internet provider reached a $25.95 million settlement with the California Attorney General and Alameda County District Attorney.

A town in southern China that's known as one of the world's most notorious destinations for e-scrap is undergoing a government-mandated makeover. According to reports last week from English-language media outlets in China, all informal e-scrap processors in Guiyu will be required to move their businesses to a newly built industrial park by the start of 2016. As of late November, 400 "large workshops" had been persuaded to make the move.

New Jersey lawmakers will decide today whether to move a bill that would beef up the state's e-scrap program out of committee and onto the General Assembly floor for a vote.

The eight-member Assembly Appropriations Committee is expected to convene this afternoon to discuss the merits of

Most e-scrap leaving U.S. shores is reused in developing countries, not dumped, an Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries official said.

Scott Horne, counsel at the Washington, D.C.-based Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) and a longtime international trade expert, talked with E-Scrap News about what he said are misconceptions about e-scrap exports.

Romania remains well short of a 2021 European Union target for e-scrap collections, and Sims Metals Management brought profitability to its global e-scrap recycling business in fiscal year 2015. If all electronics generated in Europe's waste stream were recycled, the industry could realize nearly $2.3 billion in revenue, according to an article at

Last week's Electronics Recycling Asia Conference in Singapore touched on the circular economy, industry certifications and the diverse systems in place to recover e-scrap in Southeast Asia. Running from the Nov. 10-13, the conference drew 138 attendees and attracted 18 exhibiting companies.

A North Carolina company that once hoped to establish e-scrap recycling across the U.S.

In a resounding victory for electronics reuse advocates in the U.S., the Librarian of Congress has granted individuals and companies alike the right to unlock used phones and tablets for the next three years.

The ruling eliminates a key obstacle for companies attempting to re-market used devices and concludes more than a year of uncertainty surrounding the future legality of unlocking in the U.S.

SERI has begun conducting surprise audits of R2-certified facilities, with auditors concentrating on downstream due diligence and other topics of concern.

Sustainable Electronics Recycling International (SERI), the Boulder, Colo.-based nonprofit organization managing the R2 e-scrap environmental standard, began conducting spot – or unannounced – audits of facilities in mid-August. So far, it has conducted about a dozen.

After a long-simmering defamation lawsuit was dismissed this month, the Basel Action Network has gone on the offensive. A report released by BAN today indicates Intercon Solutions, a Chicago-area processor that appears to be inactive, exported at least 167 containers of scrap material to Hong Kong and other Asian ports between 2010 and 2011.

The new allegations, which build on BAN's initial export charges against Intercon, suggest Intercon's activity was "likely in contravention of international, Chinese and U.S. law," the group claims.