Seattle CEOs Charged Over Illegal Recycling Of LCD Screens

SEATTLE, WA - The leaders of a local electronics recycling company are facing federal criminal charges for secretly sending items overseas, falsely telling customers — including the state of Washington — that they were following environmentally-sound and legal practices.

The CEOs of Total Reclaim, Craig Lorch and Jeffrey Zirkle, allegedly conspired to send large quantities of LCD screens to Hong Kong, potentially exposing laborers there to harmful toxins.

Some of Total Reclaim's largest customers included the state Materials Management and Financing Authority, the city of Seattle, and the University of Washington. Total Reclaim accepted money from those customers to recycle LCD screens responsibly, but instead stockpiled the LCDs on Harbor Island before shipping the items overseas.

Total Reclaim had been fined by state regulators for this practice at least twice before - once in 2016 for $440,000, and again in 2017 for $67,500.

Lorch told Patch Thursday morning that the company has ceased sending the LCDs overseas.

"The charges filed today by the Department of Justice relate to conduct by Total Reclaim’s owners that they previously and publicly acknowledged and for which they promptly apologized and took responsibility," Lorch wrote via email. "The conduct in question – exportation of flat screen monitors that Total Reclaim customers paid the company to process domestically according to specified handling standards -- ceased immediately after discovery in December 2015. The company and its owners have subsequently cooperated fully with regulators in Washington and Oregon to resolve related administrative enforcement actions and also cooperated fully with federal authorities in their investigation and will continue to do so."

According to charges, the LCD screens contain mercury. Once shipped to Hong Kong, workers would dismantle the screens in a "primitive process" that exposed them to mercury and other chemicals, the charges state.

Total Reclaim was paid over $1.1 million for its LCD recycling services between 2008 and 2016. Lorch and Zirkle took those payments while representing that the recycling services were being done under legal and industry standards, according to court documents.

You can read the full charging document here:

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the year the state of Washington fined Total Reclaim $440,000.

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