JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The owner of a Jacksonville electronic recycling and scrapping business was arrested Monday after state law enforcement officials said they discovered 47,000 pounds of hazardous waste had not been disposed of properly.
Maria Delgado-Loubriel, 60, is charged with improper disposal and storage of hazardous waste.
Authorities said improperly discarded electronics led to an arrest warrant being issued Delgado-Loubriel, the owner of Legie E-Scrap Recycling.
According to the arrest warrant, a state environmental crime investigator located between 200 to 250 illegally discarded computer monitors that contained lead in a dumpster behind Legie E-Scrap Recycling on Philips Highway.
Jack Jones Jr., an expert on electronic recycling, owns Recycling E-Scrap, an electronic recycling business that’s been around since the 1990s. He explained that not properly disposing of electronic materials can contaminate the environment and pose health concerns.
"There’s many dangers," Jones told News4Jax on Thursday. "Most prevalent is threefold. Some contain mercury devices, which is bad. Like, CRTs contain lead.”
An old computer monitor is an example of a CRT, or cathode-ray tube. The tube is built into the front and it's the part that contains lead.
Jones said it's costly to get rid of CRT screens.
"We just paid $5,000 to dispose of (one) because you can't house for longer than a year," he said. "(If you do), they're going to come cite you a ticket for holding onto it for too long. That gets a lot of companies in trouble."
Delgado-Loubriel was booked into the Duval County jail, but was released after posting $10,000 bond. No one answered the door when News4Jax went to her home Thursday.
According to court records, in 2013, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection spoke to Delgado about properly managing electronic waste.