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Recycling Company and Executives Found Guilty of Fraud

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Originally posted here: http://www.pagosadailypost.com/news/22213/Recycling_Company_and_Executives_Found_Guilty_of_Fraud/

Executive Recycling, Inc. (a corporation), Brandon Richter, age 38, of Highlands Ranch, Colorado, who was the owner and chief executive officer, and Tor Olson, age 37, of Parker, Colorado, former vice president of operations, were convicted of multiple counts of mail and wire fraud, environmental crimes related to the illegal disposal of electronic waste, smuggling, and obstruction, following a 11-day trial. The defendants are scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Martinez sometime in April 2013.

“The improper disposal of electronic waste not only hurts our environment, it also leaves a legacy of environmental hazards for our children and our children’s children,” said U.S. Attorney John Walsh.  “The trial team, including our prosecutors and staff, ICE HSI and the EPA, deserves the thanks of the public for their outstanding work during this ground-breaking environmental investigation that also involved a case of first impression in export control and complex criminal trial.”

“This criminal conviction demonstrates that there are no shortcuts to following U.S. export laws,” said Kumar Kibble, special agent in charge of HSI Denver.  “For years this company also deceived the public by falsely advertising an environmentally friendly U.S. recycling business plan.  Instead, it regularly exported obsolete and discarded electronic equipment with toxic materials to third-world countries, and took actions to illegally hide these practices from government officials.”

“The United States is a world leader in the manufacture and consumption of electronics and we have a responsibility to ensure they are disposed of properly,” said Jeffrey Martinez, EPA’s Special Agent in Charge of EPA’s criminal enforcement program in Colorado. “Many of these worn-out electronics are illegally exported to developing countries where people risk their health and the environment to retrieve the valuable materials left in them. Today’s guilty verdicts demonstrate that the American people will not tolerate the flagrant violation of laws that harm the environment and people of the developing world.”

According to the indictment, as well as the facts presented at trial, Executive Recycling was an electronic waste recycling business located in Englewood, Colorado with affiliated locations in Utah and Nebraska.  The company collected electronic waste from private households, businesses, and government entities.  Executive Recycling was registered with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment as a “Large Quantity Handler of Universal Waste.”  Richter, as owner and CEO, was responsible for supervising all aspects of the company.  Olson, the vice president of operations, was responsible for running day-to-day operations.

A significant portion of electronic waste collected by the defendants were Cathode Ray Tubes (CRTs).  CRTs are the glass video display component of an electronic device, usually a computer or television monitor, and are known to contain lead.  The defendants engaged in the practice of exporting electronic waste, including CRTs, from the United States to foreign countries, including the People’s Republic of China.  The defendants regularly negotiated the sale of electronic waste to brokers who represented foreign buyers or who sold the electronic waste overseas.  The foreign buyers often paid the defendants directly.  To transport the electronic waste, the defendants used shipping cargo containers which were loaded at the company’s facility.  The containers were then transported by rail to domestic ports for export overseas.

Executive Recycling appeared as the exporter of record in over 300 exports from the United States between 2005 and 2008.  Approximately 160 of these exported cargo containers contained a total of more than 100,000 CRTs.

Between February 2005 and continuing through January 2009, the defendants knowingly devised and intended to devise a scheme to defraud various business and government entities who wanted to dispose of their electronic waste, and to obtain these business and government entities’ money by means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses.  The defendants represented themselves on a website to have “extensive knowledge of current EPA requirements.” The defendants falsely advertised to customers that they would dispose of electronic waste in compliance with all local, state and federal laws and regulations.  It was part of the scheme that the defendants falsely represented that they would dispose of all electronic waste, whether hazardous or not, in an environmentally friendly manner.  Specifically, the defendants falsely represented that the defendant company recycled electronic waste “properly, right here in the U.S.”  They also stated that they would not send the electronic waste overseas.

The defendants’ misrepresentation induced customers to enter into contracts or agreements with the defendants for electronic waste disposal.  Each victim paid the defendants to recycle their electronic waste in accordance with the representations made by the defendants.  Contrary to their representations, the defendants sold the electronic waste they received from customers to brokers for export overseas to the People’s Republic of China and other countries.

Executive Recycling as a corporation faces a $500,000 fine per count for 7 wire fraud counts, or twice the gross gain or loss.  The corporation faces a conviction for one count of failure to file notification of intent to export hazardous waste, which carries a penalty of a $50,000 fine per day of violation, or twice the gross gain or loss.  The corporation also faces a one count of exportation contrary to law, which carries a penalty $500,000 fine or twice the gross gain or loss.

Richter and Olson each face 7 counts of wire fraud, each count of which carries a penalty of not more than 20 years imprisonment and up to a $250,000 fine.  They face one count exportation contrary to law, which carries a penalty of not more than 10 years imprisonment, and up to a $250,000 fine or twice the gross gain or loss, or both.  Lastly, Defendant Richter faces one count of destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in Federal investigations and bankruptcy, which carries a penalty of not more than 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.  There is also an asset forfeiture allegation, which states that upon conviction the defendants shall forfeit to the United States any and all property or proceeds derived from their illegal activity.

 

Wow!  These guys got what was coming to them, didn’t they?

I know the first thing that came to mind was what did they promise their customers?  What did their website look like?  Did they claim to have any certifications, such as the top notch e-stewards or the shady looking R2?

Let’s take a look at their About page.  If you try to go to Executive Recycling, it redirects to another e-waste recycling company…who are these Techcycle guys?  A little loophole I found allows me to get around this: check them out on Wikipedia (why they’re on there is odd to begin with) and click the link to their page at the bottom of the article.  Bam!  We’re in.

The About page has no mention of being certified at all…for all of you out there looking to recycle your electronics, ask/look for the e-stewards certification.  Any facility that has this will definitely want you to know they met its ISO 14001 standards: no prison labor, no exporting, no incinerating or landfilling of toxic materials.

It’s a bit sad how vague their page is…when you compare it to other companies it seems so obvious how lame they are.  I wonder how many companies out there are looking deeper into their e-waste recyclers as a result of this incident…

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Hidden Costs Series: Starbucks (video)

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Hidden Costs Series: Starbucks

This is one part of a video series called “Hidden Costs”, which focuses on one particular thing and gives it a grade based on categories like Environment, Health and Economy.

While I really like this video (and a few others in the series), I disagree with a few things.  First, Starbucks does not deserve a B in the Environment category.  According to this video, their products are 10% recyclable.  All they need to do is implement composting programs at their stores, both for the employees and the customers.  The majority of waste at a coffee shop is compostable.

Time for a quick local blasting:  Philadelphia has several composting services available that are very affordable, yet the majority of our coffee shops don’t utilize them.  Hell, there’s even services provided on bicycle.  Coffee shops are among the easiest candidates for zero waste (with very little effort, mind you) all while reaping huge P.R./marketing benefits…but here they sit, just sucking.

I’ve read that some of their sites offer their coffee grind waste to anyone that wants it for their home composting efforts.  If this is really true (in my experience with calling stores it hasn’t been thus far), they should promote it more.  They save money on their waste hauling bill, connect with their customers, and avoid the landfill.  This is no-brainer stuff here.

Now for my other gripe, which many of you may disagree with: the Economy category.  Who cares about Economy?  All this says to me is that Starbucks is a corporate monster that makes $11.7 billion dollars a year.  They also employ nearly 200,000 people.  Why does this matter?  Maybe I shouldn’t talk because I have a job, but all this says to me is that they’re a giant company that has that has even more of a responsibility to do right.

Keeping the focus on economy and jobs instead of environment and social issues is a great way to keep everyone hating each other and the war effort alive and well.  While I know I sound like an angry teenager for writing that, I don’t care.  Watch the documentary Black Gold for a better idea on how the coffee industry works.  Starbucks is a major player in keeping things exactly how they are, and they are not worthy of a grade that equates to “Good”.

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Waste of the Week #13: Single Use Floss

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“Hi Performance” single use floss… wow!  How wasteful is this?  I don’t remember where I discovered this gem of an item, but it made me laugh hysterically.  With every use you save 10″ of floss while throwing away an amount of plastic equivalent to 25% of the standard packaging.

What happened to the usual floss, the little box with the spool containing up to 300 feet of the stuff?  Maybe this person was a dentist and took a pack home from work, but I doubt it.  I could imagine dentists using something like this if they don’t reuse their instruments for some reason.  Why would these be available at a convenience store?  I guess for…convenience.

Floss is usually made of nylon or teflon coated with wax…which means we’re all throwing away strands of plastic everyday and tangling up pipes.  Is there something other than plastic to use?

I found compostable single use floss picks…although it wasn’t clear if the floss itself was something other than plastic.  I’ve read of silk being used as a substitute, and as I expected this really annoys the animal rights people.  Apparently, Gandhi promoted the use of wild silk that didn’t involve killing the silkworms.

How about a compostable plastic (or paperboard?) standard box of non-plastic floss?  Anything but this single use stuff…making life easier is fine, but this is just one of those products that doesn’t need to be out there.  I took a walk after writing this, and of course I found a handful of them scattered on the sidewalk…perfect.

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Waste of the Week 12: Berlin Train Station

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I love designs that are crisp and clean, but not so much for waste segregation purposes, unless you’re the Big Belly Trash Compactor.

Feeling like an idiot not knowing a word of German, this receptacle wasn’t so intuitive for me to use, although I think everyone is in the same bind seeing the text all crammed together like that.

This can solidifies my thought that i like seeing graphics paired with the text to make the process even quicker and easier.

As I waited for the train, I watched others throw their waste away in what looked like a careless fashion.  I’m wondering if it’s viewed as redundant because they utilize single stream recycling…then you’d have 3 options for the same piece of recyclable material.  Or maybe it all goes to the landfill (I highly doubt it).

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The Obligatory Black Friday Post…

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The Story of Stuff (2007) – Ch.1: Introduction

I almost forgot to post on one of the lamest days of the year: Black Friday.

If you don’t understand why Black Friday is lame, there’s probably a lot of other things we disagree on.  Anyway, I’ll hand it over to Annie Leonard’s Story of Stuff today.  I have a headache.

Rather than buying stuff today, try giving the gift of service or your time to someone instead…

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Too Much Recycling? Free Market Gov’s’ Empty Landfills Worry Wall St.

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EARLIER: Moody’s Investors Service has threatened to downgrade the Delaware Solid Waste Authority, currently rated A2, because the state isn’t dumping nearly as much lucrative trash for local towns in its Cherry Island Landfill and other waste sites as it used to.

The state dumps have suffered “substantial declines in tonnage since 2007, from over one million tons, to 675,000 tons in fiscal year ending June 30, 2012,” writes Moody’s in a new report.

“The authority expects tonnage to stabilize in the 600,000 to 650,000 tons range in the near term.

“A large part of the decline since 2010 is due to increased recycling efforts through state bill that prevented the authority’s direct participation.

“Declines have also come in general waste reduction efforts by households.”

If Delawareans don’t start throwing out more garbage, DSWA has the power to raise cash through a real estate tax. Or it could raise dumping fees — which could drive business elsewhere.

On the upside, Moody’s adds, there’s plenty of room in Delaware’s landfills.

GOVERNOR: Gov. Jack Markell’s spokesman, Brian Selander, traces DSWA’s recycling issues to this provision in Delaware’s recycling law: “Effective no later than September 15, 2011, the Authority shall cease providing curbside recycling services, including yard waste collection…”  Leaving the job to private haulers and the scrutiny of the Recycling Public Advisory Council.

The law has boosted private-sector contractors. See this list of curbside residential pick-up firms locals can choose; http://www.dswa.com/universalRecyclingServices.asp. Compare it to the choices in your PA or NJ neighborhood.

One of the small firms on the list, Brandywine Waste Services, was started by a guy in my (worn suburban Wilmington) neighborhood with a single truck, going door to door seeking customers. Three other services compete for my neighbors’ business. Result: I’m paying less for trash hauling than I did in the 1990s.

Markell, says Selander, “is a free market governor.”

That’ll work, at least as long as the people’s landfills can still pay down their debt…

-Joseph N. DiStefano

When I first read this, I thought I was reading the Onion for a second.

Can anyone really say with a straight face that less waste going to the landfill is a bad thing, simply because their stocks aren’t where they want them?  Do these people really want to landfill yard waste (which makes up more than 25% of landfills) which needs to be used to regenerate our soils?

It would be fun to interview these people and see what they think happens to waste in a landfill…that may be part of the problem.  Have they ever heard of methane, landfill gas, or leaching of toxins into our groundwater?

For those of you thinking this sounds great because they mention high recycling rates and household waste reduction efforts, the sad reality with recycling is that it’s not all in our hands.  Yes we can set aside the right materials for the blue bin, but it doesn’t mean the stuff is automatically reprocessed into a secondary product (that isn’t usually recyclable) down the line.

It’s up to companies like Waste Management, for example, who can decide to trash an entire load of plastics if they can’t make a buck, or in NE Philadelphia soon enough, turn it into magical green pellets that will incinerate perfectly (don’t get me started).  In short, buy less plastic and reuse more stuff.

One thing to keep in mind: does this data include trash that’s going to “waste to (of) energy” facilities?  For example, Chester’s Covanta Delaware Valley L.P. facility takes in up to 3,348 tons per DAY.  It’s worth noting that over half of Philadelphia’s trash is being sent to their facilities…start contacting your local council creatures, people!

Are these Wall St. losers investing in this stuff instead?  They could have seen an 8% rise in their investment over the last year, wow!  I can’t think of anything better to do than invest in waste processing facilities.  Maybe these guys don’t know that incineration is happening and they really think everything that isn’t landfilled is being recycled.

I’ve been taking a break from writing lately, and stories like this are precisely why.  This scenario is yet another disgusting reminder of how people can lose sight of the bigger picture altogether in exchange for their profits.

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Waste Watch: Keurig Single Cup Brewers

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Have you seen one of these?  Recently, I stayed at a place that had one, and tried to quickly block it out of my mind.  Here I am, face to face with this complete waste of space.  It’s clear there’s a lack of thought with regards to disposal here.  Instead of asking Keurig about their product line, I’d rather share my reservations with you to see what you think (and I’ll also ask them in the meantime).

In case you aren’t aware of these things, it’s a single serve coffee machine that sells you on the point that you get a fresh cup of coffee in a minute or less by using these questionable junk plastic cups.  They might be recyclable (no obvious marking on them although they claim they’re polypropylene), but more importantly the process is extremely wasteful.

One of their competitors (I think?  Who knows who owns who anymore?) teamed up with Terracycle to have a collection process to compost the contents and recycle the cups into another use (program no longer in operation).  I applaud Terracycle’s creativity and their founder is a great dude, but they shouldn’t need to exist if everything was handled by the companies that create the mess.  “Awesome solutions for ignorant problems” should be their real slogan.

I recently reposted a great article by Mike Ewall that explains how societal problems are shifted onto us the consumer and away from the corporations that need to be addressing them.  Keurig falls squarely into this of course, and they address the problem with a few copy/paste corporate paragraphs you’ve read before…here we go:

“The manufacturing requirements of the K-Cup® pack currently make recycling difficult. The K-Cup® pack is made up of three main elements: the cup itself, a filter and an aluminum foil top. The pack’s components prevent oxygen, light and moisture from degrading the coffee. Without the barrier the packaging materials provide, we could not maintain quality or freshness. However, we are actively working to meet the challenge of creating a pack that reduces environmental impact and continues to deliver an extraordinary cup of coffee.”

So is Keurig implying that all coffee that comes in kraft paper bags (100% compostable) isn’t going to provide a quality fresh cup?  Even though any coffee that you get in kraft paper bags, grind the beans yourself and use a french press will taste eons better and not have any waste (compost the bag, use the tin tie in any number of ways)?  Stating the obvious, this appliance is purely for convenience.  I wonder how many people that have one of these ever make their own coffee with a press?  Those that do must wonder about the waste of this thing, right?

They also remind me of the ultimate corporate cup, which must be a good part of their market… I’ve witnessed a collection effort at an office space for a similar system (a Terracycle program existed at one point), and the feedback was that it was a pain to even do that.  No one trusted that the collection resulted in any real reduction or recycling, which doesn’t surprise me that much.  It’s a shame, because they were taking action and became disenchanted.

Back to the company paragraph: Saying “we’re working on it” is the best way to never do anything and to forever shut up those that are looking to see what you’re doing (I love saying “coming soon” or “working on it” to buy myself time to write about stuff when I really need to clear my head and keep myself from whining like I’m doing here…maybe that’s what they’re doing but I highly doubt it). Polypropylene leaches toxins.  Blasting steaming hot water through it is going to leach crap into your cup, beyond the infamous BPA.  It’s used because it’s strong and lighter than other plastics?  For flavor protection or profit margin?

Of course they mention that recycling polypropylene is available in most places around the U.S…. but because it’s collected doesn’t mean it’s recycled by any means.  I wish I didn’t know that, but I do.

Simple solution to all of this?  Buy your own bag of beans in a kraft paper bag (or biodegradable PLA lined if you must) instead of those shiny plastic bags that have no end use.  Press your own coffee.  Leave it at that.  Spend the couple of minutes and enjoy your coffee that you made by yourself.  Plan B: buy your cup from a respectable coffee shop (whatever that means).  Plan C: Drink more water.  Plan D: If you have to have the convenience of this product, please contact them and demand a change to their process.

Solution for Keurig?  Use paper cups (think ketchup cups at fast food establishments) and experiment with wax liners (if you’re already doing that, talk about it!).  Could it really taste any worse?  Better yet, focus on your coffee and give your machines a rest.  Why is it acceptable to be so wasteful?  Yep, we made people lazier at the expense of more plastic waste, more ingested toxins and a crappier cup of coffee.  Cheers mate!

Update: Keurig makes a reusable K-Cup.  Yes, this is nice.

Next, they need a cup  manufactured from a material that gets recycled.

Choking on plastic.