California Wants to Cut E-Waste Recycling Fee on Products

California wants to cut the e-waste recycling fee that consumers pay when they buy new products, because the state has a substantial reserve fund, CalRecycle said. The state was the first to enact an e-waste law in 2003 and is the only one that has adopted a fee-based system known as the advanced recycling fee (ARF). The agency is seeking comments on staff recommendations that the consumer fee, raised in 2008, be reset to levels prescribed in the 2003 law. Twenty-two states have enacted versions of producer responsibility e-waste laws.

The agency is proposing reducing to $6 from $8 the recycling fee for covered electronic devices with screens less than 15 inches. For devices with screen 15 to 34 inches, the fee would be cut to $8 from $16, and for those with screens 35 inches or larger, the fee would come down to $10 from $25. The fees were raised in 2008 after projections that “payment claims would exceed revenue and exhaust the existing fund balance at some point” in fiscal 2008 or 2009, the agency said. The law covers CRT tubes and CRT containing devices such as TVs and monitors, LCD and plasma TVs and monitors, laptops and DVD players.

Until mid-2008, California’s program grew at 4 million pounds a quarter on average, the agency said. But contrary to projections of continued growth underlying the fee increases, e-waste volumes “unexpectedly” fell toward the end of 2008 before peaking in 2009’s first quarter and then declining, the agency said. The program has paid $360 million total for recovery and recycling of 808 million pounds, it said. Revenues rose from $31 million in fiscal 2004 to $108 million in fiscal 2008 and was projected to go up to $140 million in fiscal 2009. If no adjustments are made to the recycling fee, the projected revenues for fiscal 2010 is $143 million, it said.

In recommending cuts to the recycling fee, CalRecycle staff is assuming that covered electronics will remain flat at 9.5 million units a year and volume of e-waste recovered at 200 million pounds. Proposed fee cuts would reduce average fee revenue per device to $8 in FY 2011 from $11.43 in FY 2010, the agency said. CalRecycle’s model for fee reduction will “responsibly reduce” the e-waste fund reserve “within a relatively short period of time, while allowing for contingencies in the event of unexpected fiscal developments,” the agency said. CalRecycle’s ability to adjust fees annually will give it “significant flexibility” to ensure the program’s solvency, it said. CalRecycle said it must complete action on any fee changes by Aug. 1, and that they would take effect Jan. 1.