EarthEcycle, the company that conducted a free electronics recycling program for the Western Pennsylvania Humane Society and other area charitable organizations earlier this year, has been charged with dumping electronic waste in South Africa.

The new charges by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency -- added to allegations the Tulsa, Okla.-based company also dumped waste electronics in Hong Kong -- are part of an amended complaint filed July 2 against the company.

EarthEcycle is owned by Jeff Nixon, a former Allegheny County Health Department employee.

The company, which has partnered with six Pittsburgh-area charitable organizations this year, collected millions of pounds of electronic equipment and is charged with violating at least seven federal hazardous waste management regulations.

Such dumping of electronics in foreign countries can expose workers and residents to toxic materials like mercury, lead and arsenic that can cause cancer and other illnesses.

The complaint states that on May 1, EarthEcycle exported two, 40-foot-long sea-going shipping containers containing 2,016 used computer monitors through the port of Baltimore to South Africa.

When customs officials there opened the containers, monitors closest to the doors were not packed to prevent breakage and fell out. On June 24, following an investigation of the containers, South African officials determined they contained electronic waste that is prohibited from entering the country.

The EPA has ordered EarthEcycle to arrange for the return of the electronic waste to the United States. If the company fails to do so, it will be subject to a fine of $37,500 a day.

EarthEcycle has 20 days from July 2, when Mr. Nixon was informed of the amended complaint, to request a hearing. The company must file an answer to the complaint, contesting the allegations or the compliance order.

The EPA has also ordered the company to retake possession of shipping containers sent to Hong Kong and returned to the port in Newark, N.J., and submit a plan for disposing of each piece of equipment in those four containers.

Mr. Nixon yesterday declined to comment on the amended complaint, calling it "old news," or on any plans to move and dispose of tons of old electronics and computer equipment collected in Western Pennsylvania and stored in a Monroeville warehouse owned by Levin Furniture's Robert Levin.

"We're jam-packed with tons of product," Mr. Levin said. "It's an ongoing saga. We want to get a resolution, but we want to get it disposed of properly in a way that will protect the environment."

Ward Dingmann, Levin's vice president of operations, said EPA has requested a meeting later this week to discuss the stored electronics.

EarthEcycle, which is also storing collected electronics equipment in the yard surrounding an old auto repair shop in Homewood, collects and exports used electronics equipment and parts, including color computer monitors that contain cathode ray tubes. The CRTs may contain toxic phosphors within the glass envelopes, which could contain heavily leaded glass and represent an environmental hazard. The average color computer monitor contains 4 pounds of lead in addition to mercury, cadmium and arsenic.

Since 2001 the EPA has had regulations requiring disposal of CRTs at special recycling operations.