News

Microsoft alleges a recycling company willfully advertised and sold refurbished computers with unlicensed copies of its software. In the suit filed Jan. 25 against Phoenix-based E-Waste Harvesters, Inc., Microsoft says it repeatedly warned the company against using its products or trademarks that it has not authorized.

The Librarian of Congress has determined it is now illegal to unlock mobile phones, leaving many in the burgeoning mobile device refurbishment business scrambling to determine how the law will affect their business. The Library of Congress oversees U.S. copyright law, and as of Jan. 26 it now interprets unlocking any carrier-subsidized wireless devices as a violation of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which bans technologies that violate copyright protections.

Penalties have been handed down in the case involving the largest criminal network ever uncovered by the U.K. Environment Agency.

A total of 220,000 GBP ($354,266) in fines have been levied on eight individuals and three companies in connection with an electronic waste trafficking scam. The individuals and companies in question illegally exported 496 tons of scrap televisions, refrigerators, computers and other electronics, to Ghana, Nigeria and Pakistan, all while telling customers the items were being refurbished or recycled responsibly.

SWEEEP Kuusakoski and Nulife Glass have teamed up on a new processing system to recover lead from CRT glass.

The new glass furnace is the product of over a decade of technological innovation and design by Nulife founder Simon Greer, which included a pilot prototype version installed at the company's Manchester, England facility. The latest version of the system was installed at SWEEEP Kuusakoski's Sittingbourne, England recycling facility last July at a cost of approximately $3.2 million.

All 10 citations levied against COM2 Computers and Technologies LLC by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration will be cleared by the end of the month, following a settlement agreement made between the agency and the company Oct. 16.

OSHA had alleged that the Carol Stream, Illinois processor had violated air quality and worker safety practices relating to lead exposure at one of its facilities.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued 11 citations against dual-certified e-scrap processor COM2 Computers and Technologies LLC, but the company says it is meeting with the agency next week to contest the allegations.

COM2 was certified to both e-Stewards and R2 at its Carol Stream, Illinois facility in the Fall of 2011, using AQA International, approximately seven months before the alleged violations were observed by OSHA.

CRT glass may be heading to California landfills — legally. The California Department of Toxic Substances Control has issued an emergency regulation that will allow recycling firms in the state to send some of their CRT glass material to approved landfills.

Even though it has made significant environmental health and safety improvements over the last several years, persistent complaints regarding UNICOR's e-scrap processing operations have now prompted new federal legislation targeting the company.

House Resolution 3634, introduced earlier this year by Rep. Bill Huizenga (R — Michigan), would eliminate the mandatory source preference currently enjoyed by Federal Prison Industries, Inc.

Intercon Solutions, the e-scrap processor denied e-Stewards certification almost a year ago amid allegations of improper export of materials, has filed a suit against the Basel Action Network for defamation.

The complaint names both BAN and its executive director, Jim Puckett, and says the Seattle-based non-profit organization “unlawfully placed the company in a false light” when it alleged Intercon Solutions knowingly shipped hazardous waste to China.

Federal Prison Industries, Inc., better known as UNICOR, is once again facing a lawsuit regarding worker safety and environmental standards at its electronics recycling operations.

UNICOR, which operates an inmate work program at federal corrections facilities, has been processing electronic scrap for nearly two decades.