Friday, March 23, 2007

Maine Gets Rid of their eWaste

Very interesting one here on Maine's eWaste recycling industry. Uniwaste, the company doing the dismantling, handles 70 percent of the business from Maine, about 50,000 pounds a year.

Naturally, since there is so much of this stuff around, there will be some abuse in the eWaste process. This paragraph brought back memories:

State officials know there can be abuses. Complaints in 2005 led to the discovery of a South Portland warehouse filled with about 150 TV sets and computer monitors. A recycling company apparently sold the more valuable waste and stockpiled the rest, before declaring bankruptcy and leaving the landlord to recycle the waste, officials said.

Reminded me of doing urban planning work in East Orange, NJ, where exactly the same thing happened - companies would rent a warehouse, fill it up with drums of toxic chemicals, and then stop paying the rent. I'm sure we will find more and more of these caches as the work continues.

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