WASHINGTON, July 7 (UPI) -- Envrionmentalists are claiming credit for Dell's decision to drop a federally funded prison labor group from its computer recyling program.
Federal Prison Industries, which operates under the trade name Unicor, will cease providing recycling services to Dell's recycling program, effective immediately, Dell spokesperson Bryant Hilton told PCWorld magazine. In addition, Unicor will stop recycling Dell printers in "30 to 60 days."
Unicor's contract with Dell, signed in October 2002, had been controversial. In March, the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, an environmental advocacy group, wrote a letter to Dell Chief Executive Office Michael Dell urging his company to develop a new recycling program. The group wrote "prisons unfairly compete with private sector recycling and thus deter the vitally needed development of the private sector infrastructure for domestic waste recycling."
Environmental groups did not affect the decision, says Dell's Hilton. "In no way did we make the move" because of outside pressure.
