Toward a Just and Sustainable Solar Energy Industry (PDF)
In January 2009, Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition released their report documenting and analyzing the environmental and health hazards of solar panel systems in a supposed "win-win" solution to global warming. Read the report for more information about the health and safety concerns as well as recommendations for building a just and sustainable solar energy industry. For a hard copy of our report, visit our "Toward a Just and Sustainable Solar Energy Industry" Order Page.*

Citizens at Risk
Citizens At Risk is a film by Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, Chintan Environmental Research and Action Group (India), and IMAK News and Entertainment (India). The film was shot and produced in India and contains English narration. This film takes the viewer to relatively unknown and forgotten areas in and around Delhi, and shows how the poor, both children and adults, are forced to recycle highly toxic waste materials under perilous conditions.

Regulating Emerging Technologies in Silicon Valley and Beyond
On April 2nd, the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition (SVTC) released a report exposing the potentially catastrophic impact on your health and environment of a nanotechnology industry that runs unchecked.

Challenging the Chip
In the first published collection of its kind, 26 diverse activists, visionaries and scholars document the devastating impacts of electronics manufacturing and how they came together in their workplaces, communities and across borders to hold the industry accountable. Co-editor Ted Smith and authors provide a roadmap to challenge the industry on not only what it is doing wrong, but to put its dazzling ingenuity to work and develop cleaner green technologies that are toxic-free and easy to recycle.

Toxic Sweatshops:
How UNICOR Prison Recycling Harms Workers, Communities, the Environment, and the Recycling Industry (PDF)
A 2006 SVTC expose report on abuse of prison labor in the e-waste recycling industry. For the first time, prison inmates and staff blow the whistle on deplorable health and safety conditions within UNICOR, a controversial government corporation operated under the Dept. of Justice that uses captive prison labor in a range of industries, including the dismantling of toxic e-waste. Read more

Campus Report: System Error (PDF)
A resource for student activism on environmental, labor and human rights problems associated with the high-tech industry. The report includes information on responsible recycling and environmentally and socially responsible purchasing.

Brominated Flame Retardants (PDF)
In the first nationwide test for brominated flame retardants in computer dust, these neuro-toxic chemicals were found on every sample. Read about the case for safer chemicals and better computer design.

Digital Dump:
An Investigation of Electronics' Refurbishment in Africa (PDF)
This  Basel Action Network (BAN) investigation reveals that Nigeria possesses a remarkable capacity for highly skilled repair and refurbishment operations. However, BAN interviewed Nigerian refurbishing companies and discovered that most of the electronics being sent to the country are just toxic trash with no where to go. Published in 2005 by BAN. Click here to purchase the video.  

Exporting Harm:
Definitive Report and Film of the U.S. Exportation of E-Waste (PDF)
The United States and other wealthy nations use most of the world's electronic products and generate most of the e-waste. Yet, they have also made use of a convenient, hidden escape valve - exporting the e-waste crisis to impoverished developing countries of Asia. This 2002 report was a partnership between Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, Basel Action Network (BAN), Toxics Link (India) and SCOPE (Pakistan).  Click here to purchase the video.

Toxic Trash:
2005 Greenpeace Report on the exportation of e-waste (PDF)
Greenpeace International's report shows what standard recycling practices look like in China and other countries that are ill-equipped to handle the toxic garbage and the devastating effects on the local and global communities. The film demands that electronics companies eliminate toxics from their products and start mandatory take-back policies for electronics products.

Poison PCs and Toxic TVs (PDF)
A 2004 report by Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, Californians Against Waste and Materials for the Future that details the growing piles of e-waste in the U.S., the toxics contained in the computers and monitors and hazards of improper disposal was released. Did you know that the estimated cost to California tax payers totals almost $1 billion for handling e-wastes that consumers and businesses will throw away? Get information on the history on the e-waste problem, as well as policy and market solutions for changing the industry.

Tale of Two Systems (PDF)
This case study compares two very different models for recycling obsolete computers and electronics hardware that have been created by the two largest computer makers in the U.S. -- Hewlett Packard's partnership with Micro Metallics of Roseville, California, and Dell Computers' (recently renamed Dell, Inc.) partnership with UNICOR, also known as the Federal Prison Industry.

Sick of Dust (PDF)
High levels of fire retardants contaminate American homes.In the first nationwide tests for brominated fire retardants in house dust, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) found unexpectedly high levels of these neurotoxic chemicals in every home sampled.