The Tracker in the Monitor
Brought to you by IBEC Intelligence
See how a few dollars of GPS hardware changed what “responsible recycling” has to prove.Imagine handing over an old computer monitor at a retail take-back desk. You assume it goes to a recycler, gets shredded, and comes back as raw material. Now imagine that someone has hidden a small GPS tracker inside it, and weeks later a map shows it sitting in a country you have never visited.
That is not a thought experiment. It is a method the Basel Action Network (BAN) has used for years, and it has fundamentally changed how the electronics recycling industry talks about proof.
Where the Story Starts
BAN has been documenting the export of electronic waste since its 2002 report Exporting Harm, which followed American e-waste to Guiyu, China. Out of that work came the e-Stewards program: a recycler pledge in 2003, the e-Stewards Standard in 2009 and the first certifications in 2010. The idea was that recyclers should be audited against a standard that bans the export of hazardous electronic waste to developing countries, and should be able to show their work.
Trackers were the next step. If a recycler says a device stayed in the country, a tracker can confirm it.
What the Trackers Found
In 2018, BAN released the results of a year-long study in Australia, funded by the United Nations. Researchers hid 35 GPS trackers in old computers, printers and monitors and dropped them into the recycling stream. Two of the 35, about 6 percent, were exported to developing countries in Asia. BAN said the shipments were likely to have contravened international law. And two devices had been left at an Officeworks take-back desk.The earlier U.S. work was more striking. In its e-Trash Transparency Project, BAN placed 200 trackers in discarded electronics, and 65 of them, or 32.5 percent, ended up exported, according to BAN.Tracking did not stop at research. In March 2026, Thai officials inspected containers at Laem Chabang port and seized 18 that had been falsely declared. Reports put the weight of the 12 containers declared as coming from Haiti at about 285 tons, and Asia News Network reported that tips from the Department of Special Investigation and BAN helped flag some of the containers. Thai officials said the preliminary findings indicated violations of Thai law and the Basel Convention.
How the Industry Responded
Recyclers noticed. Trackers made a certificate harder to hide behind, and some companies chose to use them on their own shipments rather than wait to be tested.Schupan Electronics Recycling of Michigan is a good example, because its story is not a simple one. Recycling Today reported in December 2018 that BAN’s first tracker report said Schupan had exported equipment. Vice president and general manager Cory Pyscher disputed that: Schupan, he said, had sold the equipment to other companies, and those companies had done the exporting. Schupan, which holds R2 Certification, but not e-Stewards Certification, went on to deploy trackers of its own through Green Tracking Service. Pyscher told Resource Recycling, “Our clientele demands the highest level of environmental compliance.”Dynamic Lifecycle Innovations, a Wisconsin processor, was already using the same service when it launched. And in October 2018, Samsung said it would use BAN’s EarthEye service, the first EarthEye customer that was also in BAN’s e-Stewards Enterprise program.
What It Means for Your Facility
The lesson is not that recyclers are untrustworthy. It is that trust has become something you can test and verify. Customers, OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) and regulators can place a tracker in a shipment and compare the result with your paperwork. A few practical points to note:
• Know where every downstream vendor sends material, and keep the documentation current.
• Treat your own tracked shipments as an internal audit tool, rather than a threat.
• Make sure your sales claims match what your Downstream Disposition Chart shows.
• Prepare for unannounced inspections, as the e-Stewards Standard expects entry into your facility within 15 minutes.
If you are preparing for e-Stewards certification, or want to know how your downstream chain would stand up to a tracked shipment, talk with the IBEC experts.
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