The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "recycling" ...
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Pacific Steel Recycling Pollution
KGTV 10News revealed toxic waste piles behind the gates of a San Diego County recycling yard- Pacific Steel Inc.
Tags: Pollution
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Recycled Radiation
Radioactive materials are being found in common consumer items because radioactive devices used in manufacturing and medicine are often mixing with scrap metal for use in large varieties of other products. "Recycled Radiation" outlines the findings from the Nuclear Material Events Database.
Tags: radioactive; material; products; consumers; scrap; metal; recycled; exposure; manufacturing; medicine; Mexico; transport; oversight; disposal; waste;
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The Wasteland
CBS News found that when well-meaning American consumers give their electronics to so-called recyclers, the waste is often smuggled to China and other parts of the Third World, where it is broken down or melted for the precious metals inside. They investigated a major electronic waste recycler in the Denver area, Executive Recycling, and tracked a container that had been filled with cathode ray tubes at the company's loading docks. They followed this container from Denver, to the port of Tacoma, to Hong Kong, which is the main entryway to the part of southern China where electronic waste is broken down in the worst conditions. There, seven out of ten kids have dangerous levels of lead in their blood. Pregnancies are six times more likely to end in miscarriage. The reporters also went to China and found that wasteland, where workers were cooking circuit boards over open flames and separating the gold from other metals in acid baths on the edge of a river. While filming, the crew was attacked by a gang that protects this gray market enterprise. Back in Denver, CBS News confronted the CEO of Executive Recycling. He denied that his company had sent the CRTs overseas, but the evidence was all but irrefutable.
Tags: recycling; gray market; electronics; China; worker safety; pollution;
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Mentally Unfit, Forced to Fight
The series investigated mental health screening and treatment for service members deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Based on Defense Department records data and interviews with more than 100 mental health experts, service members, and the relatives and friends of troops who committed suicide in the war zone, we reported that the military was increasingly sending, keeping and recycling mentally troubles troops into combat, in violation of the military's own regulations, and with tragic consequences."
Tags: psychology; psychotropic; medication; post-traumatic stress; battlefield; Army Surgeon General
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Public Pays for Toxic Trails
Reporters Sarah Ruby and James Burger look into the reason why California's Kern County has so many toxic waste dumps. They found that many companies came to the county as recycling companies in recent decades, promising to turn hazardous waste into road base or other useful things. Instead, they made toxic dump piles. The Kern County Health Department had turned a blind eye to these activities, trying to "work" with the companies, but this strategy failed. BY the time the state had to step in to try to solve the problem, the culpable companies were gone, and taxpayers had to foot the cleanup bill.
Tags: Toxic waste; pollution; Kern County, CA; Bakersfield, CA; environmental health
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Wretched Excess
The story investigated the growing industry of municipal sewage sludge recycling, and particularly the practice of spreading sludge on farmland. The story followed a rancher who claims that sewage sludge made him and his family sick, and it reviews the case of a scientist who faced resistance at the EPA to his study of sludge health effects. It showed how science unfavorable to the sludge recyclers was suppressed by the EPA at the behest of the companies.
Tags: sludge; sewage sludge recycling; Environmental Protection Agency; environment; pollution; science; corruption
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As Good As New?
The recycling and re-use of medical devices labeled for one use only is called reprocessing, and is a controversial practice in the medical industry. Thousands of different devices are re-used by hospitals around the country, ranging from simple blood-pressure cuffs to highly-invasive catheters and biopsy tools. The practice saves hospitals millions of dollars, but consumers generally have no idea.
Tags: medical reprocessing; Food and Drug Administration; MAUDE data; recycling medical devices; re-using medical devices
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Newsday Investigation Series: Dumping Newsday Every Day; Tip of the Iceberg; For a Few Dollars More; Cleanup or Shakedown?; Unbelievable!; Newsday: Game Over
This investigation of Newsday, Long Island's only daily newspaper, was prompted by a lawsuit filed against the paper by its advertisers. The suit alleged that Newsday was guilty of mass circulation fraud and shortchanging advertisers. The Long Island Press launched its own investigation and found problems that went beyond the lawsuit's allegations, including mass dumping of undelivered papers into local wetland preserves and recycling centers. Reporters also learned of other instances in which Newsday inflated actual circulation and subscriber/distribution fraud.
Tags: mass circulation fraud; lawsuit; advertising
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State of Denial
This story looked at the conflict between Californians' consumption of resources and their environmental protection tendencies. The reporters tracked down some of the top exporters of California-bound products-oil, lumber, fish-and followed those products to their sources. They found there was environmental destruction on a scale that would never be allowed in the state of California. In two of the three cases, native indigenous people were those being harmed the most.
Tags: California Building Industry; environmental destruction; oil; lumber; fish; environmental protection; SUV; conservation; preservation; waste; gasoline; wood; paper; forest; Amazon rain forest; Ecuador; rainwater; oil companies; pollution; pipeline; environmental law; Canadian Boreal Trust; Canada's boreal forest; Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources; trees; California's Integrated Waste Management Board; newspaper recycling; California Air Resources board; Canada's rockfish; trawling net; Trout Unlimited; trawl quota
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Police Recycle Guns
This story reports that police departments sell their older weapons for new ones and that some of these discarded weapons land up with criminals. As these reporters found out more than 100 New Jersey guns were linked to crimes between 1985 and 2000. Gun dealers often gave the police department a cheap deal especially for older weapons having high-capacity magazines.
Tags: guns; shooting crimes; New Jersey Police Department; New Jersey gun laws; sale of police weapons