Although the European Union has put more regulations in place than the United States to try and stem the flow of toxic electronic waste to the developing world, recent reports from the BBC and the New York Times show that plenty of hazardous materials slip through the cracks of the Waste from Electronic and Electrical Equipment (WEEE) directive.

To help companies meet the law's requirements, the Basel Action Network yesterday announced that it is expanding its E-Stewards responsible recycling certification to include the European Union, and listed Redemtech EU as the first certified recycler on the continent.

"Despite it being blatantly illegal, far too much toxic WEEE is being exported to developing countries," BAN Executive Director Jim Puckett, said in a statement. "E-Stewards Certification is critical to fight against illicit e-waste exports and provides customers of WEEE recyclers, both large and small, with concrete accountability in the form of third-party audits."

The certification, which was developed by the Basel Action Network in conjunction with industry, government and nonprofit stakeholders, is based on a pledge by electronics users and recyclers to:

• eliminate exports of hazardous e-wastes to developing countries;
• halt the dumping of such wastes in municipal landfills or incinerators; and
• cease the use of captive prison populations to manage toxic e- wastes

Redemtech, which was part of the group that created the E-Stewards standard, was also one of the first firms certified when the E-Stewards certification launched earlier this year.

"Redemtech is proud to be the first e-Stewards Recycler certified in Europe, which is consistent with our company's tradition of leadership in setting the highest standards for data security and environmental stewardship," said Redemtech President Robert Houghton. "We moved quickly with the certification process to provide large enterprises with a global partner they can trust to handle their e-waste with complete transparency and accountability and support the e-Stewards Standard as the worldwide industry standard for truly responsible e-waste management."