Dell uses prison labor for computer recycling programs

IT: From the NYT via Google Groups, Dell knows how to slash costs :

The nation’s two largest per­sonal com­puter mak­ers, Dell and Hewlett-Packard, han­dle recy­cling of the waste from com­puter prod­ucts in remark­ably dif­fer­ent ways, accord­ing to a report by envi­ron­men­tal­ists released today.

The report was pre­pared by the Sil­i­con Val­ley Tox­ics Coali­tion, a group that also focuses on health issues, and the Com­puter Take Back Cam­paign. It com­mended Hewlett-Packard for using ‘state of the art’ prac­tices in part­ner­ship with an expand­ing com­mer­cial recy­cling indus­try, while crit­i­ciz­ing Dell for using low-cost prison labor in asso­ci­a­tion with Uni­cor, an indus­trial prison sys­tem within the Jus­tice Department.

Tagged as: computer, Dell, environment, government, health, system, USA