It is currently estimated that up to 80% of US E-waste ends up being illegally shipped to developing countries. The reason for this is because so-called "recycling companies" have realized that they can be paid for unprocessed electronic waste such as CRT monitors from international e-waste brokers. If processed correctly in the US, recycling CRT monitors is costly due to the cleaning process and the fact that the glass can only be recycled into new CRT's - a market which is drying up. When shipped to developing countries, however, the low cost of labor, lack of environmental laws, and dangerous working conditions enable these sweatshops to profit by harvesting only what has value and dumping the remaining toxic waste, thereby creating an environmental disaster for the country of import. According to a 2007 study from Kowloon University in Hong Kong, women in Taizou, China - a huge e-scrap processing mecca - have breast milk that is 25 times more toxic than what the World Health Organization deems safe. In addition, another study revealed that lead found in toys here in the US is a direct by-product of the cottage e-waste processing industry in China. Literally, toxic US electronic waste is coming back into the US in the form of children's toys! Read this Wall Street Journal article for more details.

Bottom line from all this is that the term "zero-cost" or "free" should immediately raise a red flag when it comes to electronics recycling. Demand that the recycling company you use is completely transparent when it comes to where each raw material is processed. Ask to see independent third party audits of their entire processing stream. Finally, make sure they have signed the Basel Action Network's Pledge of True Stewardship, which can be found at www.ban.org. If they have not signed the Pledge, demand to know why. There are "recycling" companies in your city, whether it's Denver, Salt Lake, Albuquerque, Tulsa or elsewhere that are using the third world as a dumping ground, and it needs to stop.