DENVER—Colorado authorities are looking into complaints from a Denver property owner that a company paid to recycle hazardous electronics waste abandoned 750 tons of dangerous computer parts packed in trailers.
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment spokeswoman Kate Lemon said Thursday the department was aware of other allegations of mishandling hazardous waste against the company, Luminous Recycling, and its owner, who lives in New Mexico. That investigation involved a warehouse that was being used to store electronics waste. She said the warehouse is secure and no threat to the public.
Lemon said the department is still trying to determine what hazards might be posed by the hazardous waste in the trailers. No action has been taken against the owner while the investigation continues.
In July, a Colorado state law barred people from dumping electronic waste in their garbage and landfills because the equipment contains hazardous materials such as lead, mercury and arsenic that must be recycled or disposed of by hazardous waste companies. Some retailers offer to handle the disposal for free, while other companies charge for it. Most electronics that are being recycled are smelted down and being made into components for new electronics.
Lemon said the new state law only applies to consumers. She said environmental laws were already in effect regulating the disposal of hazardous waste by companies.
Gary DeWitt, who owns the trailers rented to Luminous Recycling, said the company filled them with so much computer glass that tires on the vehicles were flattened. He said the trailers are filled from front to back with glass, each weighing at least 2,500 pounds.
Henry Renteria-Vigil said he paid Luminous Recycling more than $4,000 to recycle 34,000 pounds of glass, and does not know if it was handled properly, KMGH-TV reported Thursday ( ).
The owner of Luminous Recycling and the owner of the trailers could not be located for comment Thursday.
EPA spokesman Matthew Allen said the agency’s emergency response team only responds in cases where there is imminent danger to public health and the environment, and it’s up to Colorado officials to enforce state laws.
In June, another company that said it recycled electronic waste in an environmentally friendly manner in the U.S. was fined $4.5 million for instead shipping thousands of computer and television monitors overseas.
Englewood-based Executive Recycling Inc., its CEO Brandon Richter, and former Vice President of Operations Tor Olson were convicted in December of federal charges including fraud and environmental crimes related to the illegal disposal of electronic waste.
The company was fined in June and sentenced to three years of probation. Richter was sentenced to more than $77,000 in fines and restitution, plus 30 months in prison, followed by three years on supervised release.
A judge ordered about $142,000 in asset forfeitures.
Olson was sentenced last week to 14 months in prison, plus more than $20,000 in fines and restitution. Olson is appealing.
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Information from: KMGH-TV,
