NERC to Add TVs to State Electronics Purchase Program Soon

The Northeast Recycling Council will add TVs and printers in spring of 2011 to the State Electronics Challenge program it runs, said Executive Director Lynn Rubinstein. The program is directed at state governments and agencies that want to green their computer purchasing and operating methods and manage obsolete computers in an environmentally friendly way. It now covers computers, monitors, laptops and CPUs, Rubinstein said in an interview.

The council sets environmental criteria for state agencies’ green purchases, Rubinstein said. “We tell them that 95 percent of their computer asset purchases need to be EPEAT qualified.” In EPEAT, “we encourage them to set a minimum standard of Silver or Gold” ratings, she said. New York agencies have set EPEAT Gold ratings as a minimum standard, and if they could achieve 95 percent procurement of EPEAT Gold rated products, “I think anybody can,” she said.

EPEAT is working on standards for TVs and imaging equipment, and when they're published in the spring, the council will extend the product range for the state program to cover the products, Rubinstein said. The council provides states and state agencies that sign up free technical assistance and support and “recognition for their accomplishments,” she said. Agencies that have “sustainability goals” can achieve them through participation in the program, Rubinstein said.

The council offers participants teleconferences on topics like electronic recycler certification programs and how they can meet product end-of-life requirements, Rubinstein said. “We also do individual hand holding” to help agencies write regulations and solicitations for products, collect data, find sellers of products and identify power management gear, she said. Forty-two state agencies and the “entire states” of New Hampshire and Maine have signed up for the program, Rubinstein said.

According to reports filed by participating state agencies, more than 16,000 EPEAT certified computers and monitors were purchased in 2008 and 2009 under the program, Rubinstein said, and except for a “small handful” of Bronze-certified products, the purchases were EPEAT Gold and Silver rated. More than 18,000 units of computer gear were recycled and 4,000 reused in those two years, she said. The figures indicate that program partners’ green purchasing decisions have resulted in energy savings of more than 44 million kilowatt hours in 2008 and 2009, enough to power 3,700 households, Rubinstein said. The actions also helped avoid emissions of 8,000 metric tons of CO2, she said.

The program started as a two-year pilot with EPA funding that ended in fall 2009, Rubinstein said. The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries last month “stepped up” to sponsor the program, she said. The council also is trying to get the “big five” computer makers, which have the “greatest presence” on EPEAT, to back the program. She declined to identify the manufacturers. She also has asked trade groups like the CEA and the Information Technology Industry Council to look at the “possibility of supporting the program,” Rubinstein said.

"CEA thinks the State Electronics Challenge is an excellent example of how companies can achieve greater environmental sustainability through voluntary programs,” said an association spokeswoman. She said she wouldn’t comment on “the status of financial backing from us” for the program.