With the recent movement to go green, an increasing number of Americans are attempting to participate through recycling. However, many Americans do not realize that many of our attempts to be responsible citizens are being thwarted by an illegal smuggling operation that is dumping toxic U.S. electronic waste on poor communities in China. The program 60 Minutes interviewed Allen Hershkowitz , part-time Milano professor and senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, to illuminate the effects of such a smuggling operation on November 9.

Hershkowitz discusses the milieu of toxins released into the air, water, and ground when electronics are smuggled out of the country and improperly “recycled.” He also outlines the magnitude of the disposable electronics that the American mass-consumer culture creates. The interview lays bare the horrific effects that these electronics, through their toxins and illegal smuggling, have on the people who are paid $8/day to break down.

Allen Hershkowitz has worked as an advisor to the World Bank, the United Nations, and several Environmental Protection Agency advisory boards, and he worked for INFORM as a researcher. Hershkowitz is the author of Bronx Ecology: Blueprint for a  New Environmentalism, which details his efforts in creating the Bronx Community Paper Company.