The criteria are contained in the "Electronic Recycler's Pledge of True Stewardship" was developed in conjunction with members of the Computer TakeBack Campaign, including the Basel Action Network (BAN) and the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition (SVTC).

The use of toxic substances such as lead, mercury, chlorine and bromine in electronic products has led to increasing concern about dumping e-waste into municipal solid waste systems, where the toxins can leach into groundwater from landfills, or be released by incinerator emissions or ash.

The "Electronic Recycler's Pledge of True Stewardship" was inspired by, and marks the one year anniversary of, the release of the report "Exporting Harm: The High-Tech Trashing of Asia," by BAN and SVTC. That report sent shock waves throughout the electronics and electronics recycling industries with its revelation that 50 to 80 percent of electronic waste collected for recycling in North America was being sent to developing countries such as China, India and Pakistan.

There, the wastes were recycled in toxic and polluting operations resulting in a variety of occupational diseases, or just dumped into the environment.

The pledge also targets the increasing use of prison labor, which according to the environmentalists and recyclers, undercuts free market businesses and amounts to an inappropriate government subsidy.

Under the Banner of "No Export, No Dumping, No Prisons," the signatory companies have all agreed, among other requirements, to:

prevent hazardous e-waste from going to municipal incinerators or landfills; prevent the export of hazardous e-waste to developing countries; use free market rather than prison labor to dismantle or recycle e-waste.

By calling for a closing off of what they call the "cheap and dirty" legal outlets for e-waste, the recyclers and their environmental allies hope to prod governments to legislate similar criteria, and at the same time, establish a market for "doing the right thing."