Denver ended deal with recycler in spotlight

By Todd Hartman, Rocky Mountain News

Published November 12, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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The city of Denver recently decided against renewing a contract with an Englewood recycling firm at the center of a 60 Minutes report about the shipping of toxic electronic waste to Third World countries.

Charlotte Pitt, director of Denver Recycles, said the city ended its relationship with Executive Recycling after a city audit in September raised concerns.

"At a minimum, we really lacked confidence in their ability to track and verify where our e-waste was going," Pitt said Tuesday.

The yearlong contract with Executive Recycling called for the company to pick up and recycle Denver's outdated computers. It expired Sept. 30, Pitt said.

Executive Recycling was targeted in a 60 Minutes broadcast Sunday that reported a shipping container photographed at the company's Englewood facility wound up in a Hong Kong harbor, allegedly filled with electronic waste in violation of an international treaty.

The treaty bans many developing countries from accepting the material and rich countries from sending it there. The U.S., however, is not a signatory to the treaty.

The 60 Minutes report centered on the impact of electronic leftovers dumped in poor countries, or regions, where residents collect precious metals from the materials but are exposed to pollution and toxins.

Executive Recycling's president, Brandon Richter, told the Rocky Mountain News on Monday that the container in the TV report held working computers and televisions for reuse, not waste. But an X-ray taken by U.S. Customs and used in the 60 Minutes broadcast showed what appeared to be piles of materials tossed haphazardly into boxes.

Richter didn't return a phone call or e-mail Tuesday seeking comment, and the vice president of the company also couldn't be reached. The company's attorney, Craig Silverman, said Monday the company was "civic-minded" and "dedicated to keeping the environment safe."

Pitt said Denver decided to audit the contract with Executive Recycling after questions had been raised by "general industry talk" about the company's practices. "We wanted to check it out for ourselves," she said.

Pitt couldn't access the audit because Veterans Day was a government holiday. She said she didn't want to go into more detail about what the audit said without having it in front of her.

Denver held a community collection event this summer, so residents could bring in old electronics to keep them out of the landfill. Another Denver-area firm, GRX, ran the program, Pitt said.

Denver has yet to sign a new company to take away its old computers. In the meantime, the city is storing the material.

"We are going to try to regroup next week and try to figure out what's next," Pitt said. "Obviously, we want to find a responsible recycler for our equipment."

"It's a tough industry because there isn't a good formal certification program. The people with the equipment really have to ask all the right questions and do all the right research to make sure what they want is actually happening to the stuff they're recycling," she said.

hartmant@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5048

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