Hong Kong evidence crucial to first US e-waste conviction

Hong Kong played a key role in the United States' first successful conviction in December of a recycling company for smuggling hazardous electronic waste, the environment watchdog says.

The Environmental Protection Department said it supplied evidence to the US authorities after the interception of seven containers loaded with hundreds of cathode ray tubes in Hong Kong in 2008, which helped to convict Executive Recycling and its executives.

Acting principal environmental protection officer Kelly Yung Kin-ki said the evidence included invoices, photos and cargo inspection reports.

The information was handed over last year after a request from the US.

In an unprecedented move, a department officer also testified before a Hong Kong judge in the presence of US officers, with the evidence broadcast live in the US court.

Colorado-based firm Executive Recycling was found to have falsely claimed the electronic waste from businesses and the government would be handled locally. Instead, it shipped the waste overseas, with some of it ending up on the mainland.

"Executive Recycling appeared as the exporter of record in over 300 exports from the United States between 2005 and 2008," the US Attorney's Office for the District of Colorado said.