"Exporting Harm: The High Tech Trashing of Asia," showed that many American computers and other electronic waste is being shipped overseas to China, India and Pakistan where it is creating an environmental nightmare.

According to the National Safety Council, 315 million computer monitors will become obsolete between 1997 and 2004. Those monitors contain 1.2 billion pounds of lead, a toxic chemical that can cause brain damage and developmental delays in children. They also have mercury, arsenic, cadmium, selenium and hexavalent chromium (the chemical that Erin Brockovich first made famous), PVC plastic and flame retardants that create dioxin-like emissions when burned.

These toxics can cause brain damage, allergic reactions and cancer.

The solution to dumping in landfills or exporting overseas is recycling.

The city of Carrollton boasts Resource Concepts, the only electronics recycling firm in the state, and one of only 22 in the country that signed the "Electronic Recycler's Pledge of True Stewardship," which states that they will not export recycling to developing countries, municipal landfills or use prison labor.

The pledge was developed in conjunction with members of the Computer TakeBack Campaign, including the Basel Action Network and the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition.

"Carrollton people are the luckiest people in the state of Texas," said Robin Schneider, executive director, Texas Campaign for the Environment. "Most people realize you can't just throw your old computer in the garbage. You have to recycle your computer. Right now Carrollton has one of the only environmentally-friendly computer recycling plants where you can drop off your computer without having to drive halfway across the state."

The 153,300-square-foot Resource Concepts building is located at 2940 Eisenhower St. just off of Frankford Road. More than 125,000 pounds of electronics are shipped through the plant every week.

"We're extremely proud of this operation and the commitment that we have made to the environment. For too many years, dumping electronic waste in Asia has been the dirty little secret of the industry," explained James Glenn, regional sales manager, Resource Concepts.

The headquarters contains a test area where employees check old computers that have been sent in to see whether parts can be recycled and if the products work or not. The computers come from all over the United States and Canada. The facility also contains laptop and cell phone test and repair areas within the building.

After products are tested, they are sent to the system refurbishing area where they are repaired and cleaned up.

Restored computers are sold at outletcomputer.com and through ebay.com.

Those parts that can't be recycled are sent to the shredding room and the pieces are sent to recycling bins where they will be reused. Resource Concepts donates the ground up fiber glass and plastic from the computers to be used in plastic lumber and in building plaques. Elliot Abrahams, the secretary of the department of energy, used 75 of the plaques during an environmental awards ceremony.

Resource Concepts provides a free service to the Carrollton community. It accepts old computers and other electronic devices from private citizens of the city.

In only year, the company has seen a 327 percent increase in the amount of electronics brought in by Carrollton residents.

"Recycling electronics is important from an environmental stand point. Shipping old computers and electronics to developing countries is not a responsible way to deal with the problems of the future," said Chris Miltenberger, president of Resource Concepts.

According to BAN, the United States is the only developed country in the world that has failed to ratify the Basel Convention, a United Nations environmental treaty which adopted a global ban on the export of hazardous wastes from developed countries to developing countries.