New Export Control Bill Would Establish ‘Restricted’ E-Waste Category

A new e-waste export control bill that would create a new category of “restricted electronic waste” which can’t be exported to developing countries received tepid support from the CE and recycling industries Thursday. But environmental groups, which opposed an e-waste export bill introduced in May by the new bill’s authors, strongly support the new measure, they said. The Responsible Electronics Recycling Act (HR-6252) by Reps. Gene Green, D-Texas and Mike Thompson, D-Calif., is aimed at providing a framework for the EPA to monitor the export of used electronics, the lawmakers said.

The measure has the support of Dell, Apple, Samsung, the Electronics TakeBack Coalition and the Natural Resources Defense Council, the bill’s sponsors said. CEA is “studying the details of this bill” and looks forward “to working with the bill sponsors to find the best approach to ensure that recycling is done responsibly,” said Walter Alcorn, the group’s vice president of environmental affairs. The CE Retailers Coalition’s members are studying the bill, a spokesman said.

The Information Technology Industry Council and the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries kept mum Thursday. The bill has virtually no chance of passing this year, congressional sources said. Rep. John Carter of Texas is the only Republican supporter, the sources said, making passage even in 2011 uncertain if control of the House changes. The e-waste export bill that Green and Thompson introduced in May floundered after encountering opposition from recycling industry and environmental groups. A Green aide conceded that it’s highly likely that the bill will pass this year. “But we wanted to get the ball rolling,” he told us.

HR-6252 would create the restricted e-waste category in the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). Nonhazardous and working electronics products and parts would be exempt from the ban but subject to tests to ensure they're functional before they can be exported. Restricted electronics include those that contain CRT or CRT glass or CRT phosphor residues in any form, devices containing mercury, batteries, switches, capacitors and transformers that contain hazardous materials. Also banned would be circuit boards, printer drums and LCD displays.

A year after enactment of the measure, the EPA administrator would be required to weigh adding other electronic gear to the restricted list. At the same time, the EPA would also identify de minimis -- insignificant -- levels of hazardous materials in e-waste, which won’t pose a threat to human health or the environment. Waste that does not contain hazardous substances in excess of those levels would be exempted from export restrictions. The export ban would apply to all countries except OECD countries, EU member states and Liechtenstein.

The EPA would issue regulations on testing requirements to verify that used electronic gear or parts for exports are functional “for the purposes for which they are designed,” the bill says. The agency also would also be required to license exporters. Although e-waste is the fastest growing waste stream in the country, the EPA has no framework to monitor e-waste disposal and export to developing countries, the bill’s sponsors said. The U.S. generated more than 3 million tons of e-waste in 2007, they said.

"Dell bans the export of e-waste to developing countries as part of our global disposition policy, and the ever-growing e-waste challenge makes it necessary for all recyclers to do the same,” said Mark Newton, the company’s director of sustainable business. The new export control bill is a “great first step in giving consumers confidence that the systems they drop off for recycling will be handled responsibly,” he said.

The new e-waste export measure will “stem the tide of the toxic techno-trash sent from the U.S. to developing countries around the world,” said Barbara Kyle, ETBC’s national coordinator. Consumers now can’t tell whether their local recycler will actually recycle their old products or dump them in the developing countries, she said. “This bill will solve that problem, as well as create new recycling jobs here in the U.S."

In a call with reporters Thursday, Green conceded that not everyone in the industry will agree with the bill’s restrictions on export. But he wants all stakeholders to “remain engaged” and work with the bill’s sponsors to “close the loopholes” that are responsible for exports of e-waste to developing countries. Green said he hopes to at least get a hearing on the bill in the House Energy and Environment Subcommittee in the lame-duck session and “tee it up” for the next Congress.