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California has come up with a wonderful plan for recycling computer waste: Dump it in Arizona.
A CBS-affiliated TV news station in San Francisco caught one recycler who was adhering to California’s strict recycling laws by creating a mountain of lead-tainted glass in the desert near Yuma.
Mark Shaffer of Arizona’s Department of Environmental Quality says the news crew had come to Arizona to do a story about water and began asking around about the odd trash pile. As it turned out, Arizona authorities had already been on the case of Dave Dlubak, who owns the recycling company, says Shaffer.
The TV news crews have apparently speeded up the removal of toxic materials from Dlubak’s Arizona plant. But where will Arizona dump the stuff? Back in California?
“That’s a darned good question,” says Shaffer. He says he’ll get back to us when he finds out.
Shaffer tells us the waste is going to a country that really knows what to do with pollution: The Philippines.
Out of sight, out of mind, right?
Here’s the most recent notice of violation ADEQ handed to Dlubak:
