16 Joynag Road
Bakshibazar, Dhaka-1211
Bangladesh.
Quick answer: Basel Action Network (BAN) alleges that 10 large US brokers exported more than 10,000 containers of discarded electronics, valued at over US$1 billion, between January 2023 and February 2025. Eight of the ten held R2v3 certification.
You do the right thing. You hire a “certified recycler,” collect the paperwork and file the sustainability report. Then your old servers may end up in a container on a ship to a country that banned that import.
BAN says about 2,000 containers, roughly 33,000 tonnes of US e-waste, leave American ports every month. Its tracking found containers routed through and to Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and the United Arab Emirates, all places with clear Basel Convention bans. In an October 2026 podcast interview, BAN founder Jim Puckett repeated the headline finding: eight of the ten brokers called out were R2 certified.
Read that again. The badge on the brochure did not stop the container. These are BAN’s allegations, built from trade data, field observations and GPS tracking, and they are not court findings. But the lesson stands: a certificate alone is not proof of where your device went.
Bangladesh is not exempt from this logic. Cheap dumping flows to places where enforcement is weakest, which is why researchers worry about the country’s own e-waste import figures.
If your vendor answers with a logo instead of documents, you already have your answer.
What is the “Brokers of Shame” report?
A Basel Action Network investigation into 10 US e-waste brokers and their alleged exports of electronic waste to Asia.
Does a recycling certificate guarantee responsible handling?
No. Always verify the downstream chain of custody and ask for documents.
How can a Bangladesh company protect itself?
Choose a recycler that provides chain-of-custody reports, names its downstream partners and issues a Certificate of Destruction for every batch.
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