E-Waste Collection Index Shows Increase for Third Straight Year

Collection rates rose for the third straight year in six mandatory e-waste collection programs tracked by the National Center for Electronics Recycling. The trends in NCER’s 2009 per capita collection index (PCCI) are reflective of what’s happening nationwide in terms of e-waste recycling, the center said. They also give the lie to claims that “state mandated programs will see surges in collection in the initial years due to pent-up demand for recycling options before falling off,” it said.

The 2009 index showed an 8 percent increase over that of 2008, NCER said. The increase would have been higher but for a decline in California, where collection rates are recorded only after recyclers ship out collected materials, it said. For the other programs, increases in collection ranged from 5 to 50 percent, it said. For its PCCI, the center has been tracking collection rates in California, Maine, Delaware, Hennepin County, Minn., Bradford, Conn., and Frederick County, Va. Programs such as those in Washington and Oregon, which started in 2009, haven’t been included because the study started in 2006 and “we try to measure the constant programs over time,” said NCER Executive Director Jason Linnell.

Although California “technically fell behind,” it’s difficult to say there’s been an actual decline in collection because of the way the state’s system works, said Linnell. Collection volumes for a given year are recorded in California only when a recycler submits a “claim,” he said. But in 2009, a recycler in Mexico - Technologies Display Mexico - who was collecting CRT glass from California processors shut down, he said. “The way the California system works is you can’t submit a claim to the state until you actually ship the glass out of your backdoor."

Maine’s program recorded the highest increase of 50 percent in 2009, its third year of operation. The state got a second recycler in 2009 who has “gotten a lot more aggressive and is getting a lot more volume into their system,” he said. “It goes to show that not all of these systems will have a big rush at the beginning of the system and then sort of die out,” Linnell said. “There has been a steady increase over the past three years, and we'll see if that’s sustainable in the long run,” he said. “But it hasn’t shown any signs of letting up."

Linnell said it’s hard to say whether the sustained increase in collection rates is indicative of the fact that consumers are discarding electronics more frequently as technology evolves rapidly. Much of what’s being collected now is what has built up in consumer homes over years, he said. But there are more “opportunities” now to get rid of used gear as states start e-waste programs, he said.