Electronics recycling is a booming business – but it's also the target of criticism from watchdog groups that say much of the business leads to used electronics being shipped overseas where it poisons people and the environment.

Now the Environmental Protection Agency is investigating whether Oklahoma-based electronics recycler EarthEcycle LLC may be doing just that, according to a report by the nonprofit watchdog group Basel Action Network.

EarthEcycle has been holding public events with nonprofit groups like the Make-a-Wish Foundation and the Humane Society of Western Pennsylvania to collect used consumer electronics, and has promised to recycle them in the United States, BAN reported.

But the company instead shipped containers filled with the electronics to Hong Kong and South Africa, BAN reported. Because those electronics included cathode ray tubes that contain lead, that may be a violation of federal law on the export of hazardous waste, BAN reported.

Groups like BAN, Greenpeace  and the Electronics TakeBack Coalition have long complained that the booming electronics recycling industry is exporting waste-laden gear overseas, where it is often dismantled by hand in ways that lead to contamination of the workers and the surrounding landscape and air.

Consumer electronics can contain poisonous metals like lead, mercury and cadmium and dangerous organic compounds like polychlorinated biphenyls (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs).

That's led to electronics manufacturers to adopt recycling guidelines aimed at preventing the export or unsafe recycling of their products. Recently, Dell Inc. (NSDQ: DELL) announced it had a new recycling standard that banned any non-warranty related export of used equipment, a standard it said went beyond federal law and international guidelines (see Dell Stakes Out Aggressive E-Waste Policy).

Greenpeace has a "Guide to Greener Electronics" which it says ranks electronics makers on factors including recycling.

Electronic recycling market represented an $11 billion market in 2008 with an annual growth rate of about 8.8 percent, according to Fresno, Calif.-based Electronic Recyclers. Pike Research has predicted that electronic waste will grow to a global volume of 73 million metric tons by 2015, though increased recycling should start to lower that volume after that (see Green Light post).