"We are frustrated by the failure of the federal government and electronics manufacturers to move quickly enough to create a truly environmentally sound recycling program to deal with the current e-waste crisis," said Bobby Farris, environmental service manager for Resource Concepts Inc. in Carrollton, Texas. "So, together with some key environmental organizations, we voluntarily agreed to meet a stringent standard of operation that sets a high bar for responsible recycling."

Resource Concepts signed the agreement, which the participating companies have dubbed the Electronic Recycler´s Pledge of True Stewardship, during a Feb. 27 event. The 15 participating companies have agreed to operate under the banner "No Export, No Dumping, No Prisons."

The pledge prohibits prison labor, insisting that companies use free-market labor to process electronics. It also requires them to keep electronics from incinerators or landfills and to prevent the exportation of electronic waste to developing countries.

The founding companies hope that as more recyclers join, they will close off "cheap and dirty" legal outlets for electronic waste, said David Wood, program director of the Athens, Ga.-based GrassRoots Recycling Network and organizing director of the Computer TakeBack Campaign.

Members of the Computer TakeBack Campaign, including the Basel Action Network and the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, developed the pledge. More information is available at www.ban.org or www.svtc.org.

"We firmly believe there is a large market of consumers out there, both institutional as well as individual, who want to ensure that their old computer doesn´t wind up in the local landfill or in a rice paddy in China," Wood said.

Asset Recovery Corp., based in St. Paul, Minn., stopped exporting shortly after the Basel Action Network released a report last February detailing the harmful impacts of Western electronic scrap on developing countries such as China, Pakistan and India.

"We just literally said one day, ´Hey, look, no more of this stuff is going overseas,´" said Ryan Laber, national account manager for Asset Recovery Corp.

The company initially lost some customers because of the increased cost of its program, Laber said. But it gained others because of its stance. Electronics manufacturers are becoming especially sensitive to their end-of-life products ending up overseas.

"One major manufacturer came to us because in the report it showed equipment with their brand name on it being used to build a shanty of some sort in that area of China," Laber said. "They don´t want to see their material ending up over there with their big brand name sitting on the side of it."

Asset Recovery Corp. also uses video footage from the Basel Action Network´s report to justify its higher prices to clients and potential customers.

"Once they see that video, if they've got an ounce of environmental justice in their heart, it's very difficult for them to pick another program," Laber said.

But a pledge alone is not enough to set the best standards and practices in the industry, said Peter Muscanelli, administrator of the International Association of Electronics Recyclers in Albany, N.Y. Some of the group´s members signed the pledge and others didn´t, and the organization is taking a neutral position on it, Muscanelli said.

One problem is that the electronics recycling industry needs to set its own standards in the form of certification, which can adapt to changes in best practices, Muscanelli said. The association has certified only three U.S. electronics recyclers since starting the program.

"They've gone through on the good faith that other companies would step up to the plate in order to do a constant improvement of our standards and best practices in our industry," Muscanelli said.

The industry's main excuse is that no one is mandating that electronics recyclers be certified, Muscanelli said. But if the industry does not develop its own standards, it will be forced to follow a more fragmented approach, he said.