The amount of e-waste being created worldwide has been skyrocketing over the last few years as electronics are upgraded at an ever increasing rate, resulting in potential health problems for people and the planet. Most e-waste contains numerous toxic components and dangerous substances that prevent it from being easily recyclable. Still, Americans are realizing that all the electronic waste can’t just be buried in landfills, where it will leach the harmful elements into the ground (and water streams), and the worries have led some electronics manufacturers to establish e-waste recycling programs. Unfortunately, some of these programs do little more than mislead consumers and move our e-waste from local landfills to overseas locations. Several companies have been exposed for shipping the e-waste from their recycling programs to developing countries, where underpaid workers dismantle the waste in unsafe conditions, looking for salvageable pieces, while polluting the environment and risking their health at the same time.

To avoid such situations and to demonstrate to consumers the commitment Dell has to environmental issues, Dell has established a company-wide policy on e-waste. The new policy bans the export of any non-working Dell electronics to developing countries and sets out standards that are stricter than most of the electronics industry. The policy also bans the electronics recyclers that Dell works with from exporting their waste to developing countries, and requires that recycling partners who dismantle e-waste locally will not use prison or child labor for the recycling. There are exceptions, however, for electronics and materials deemed non-hazardous by the Basel Convention on hazardous wastes, electronics in working order, and electronics that have been returned for repair.

The firm stance Dell has taken on e-waste exports in their new policy, as well as its transparency for consumers (you can find the details of Dell’s recycling on their website) has led Barbara Kyle, the National Coordinator for the Electronics TakeBack Coalition to call Dell’s e-waste export policy “the strongest in the industry”.

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