This week the owner of a Denver recycling company was handed a 30-month prison sentence for duping customers. In December, Brandon Richter, CEO of Executive Recycling, was found guilty of shipping electronics overseas. The company told customers it was recycling them domestically. Richter was also fined $4.5 million dollars on fraud charges. The company’s vice president, Tor Olsen, will serve a 14-month prison sentence.
It was Jim Puckett’s research that alerted federal officials to the case. Puckett is the executive director of the Basel Action Network, a watchdog group that tracks trade in toxic materials. He says up to 80% of electronics collected in North America for supposed recycling are actually shipped to dumping sites in Asia. He talked with CPR’s Lesley McClurg.
[Photo: Basel Action Network]
