ERCC to Bring Out E-Waste Laws ‘Performance Measures, Product Definition’ Documents in 2011
The Electronics Recycling Coordination Clearinghouse (ERCC) will release this year documents that will help state agencies evaluate the comparative performance of their e-waste laws and aid in harmonizing definitions of products that their laws cover, an official said. The clearinghouse was set up a year ago by the National Center for Electronics Recycling and the Northeast Recycling Council as a forum for state agencies, manufacturers and others affected by e-waste laws to coordinate follow-through on the diverse regulations and ease the burden of compliance.
To begin with, the document of “performance measures” will tell a state agency what data it needs to collect to judge the performance of its law with other states’, said Jason Linnell, the center’s executive director. The clearinghouse is looking at measures such as pounds of e-waste collected, pounds collected by product category or collection by geographic area, and convenience of collection sites for consumers, he said. “Right now, part of the problem is that we really don’t have a complete data set from everywhere so a lot of the comparisons we see out there might be anecdotal.” Just in evaluating pounds collected, “we don’t really have a break down by product category everywhere,” Linnell said. “Unless you have that it is hard to compare those states that don’t have that product category in their mix with the ones that do."
Having data from all the states will help agencies “judge whether their program is having the same type of results as other states, and if they are not, they need to go back and look at why,” Linnell said. There are so many “inconsistencies across the states that it’s hard to even have one type of measure to judge everyone by,” he told Green Electronics Daily. A way to more objectively evaluate the effectiveness of state laws could also “inform the national debate” on a comprehensive federal e-waste bill, Linnell said. “There will be many people making their assessments over the next year or two to decide which of these models we have out there in the state laws are performing better than the others,” he said. The ERCC document on performance measure will come out in February, he said.
The clearinghouse also is studying definitions in state laws for the same product categories, Linnell said, pointing out that even if a group of states’ laws cover TVs, they “might not cover it in the same way with the same definition.” The ERCC’s effort seeks to come up with “what would be the best definition for consistency going forward.” It will help states looking at enacting laws to incorporate consistent definitions for products, and states that have laws can adjust their definitions during any “natural revision process,” he said. Harmonization of definition can also resolve inconsistencies, such as which category to put tablet PCs in, Linnell said. By some definitions they would fall under computers and under others a “catch-all” video display device category, he said. “And that makes an impact on what type of requirements the manufacturer has” under the law, Linnell said. The product-definition document is set for release in the second quarter, he said.
The clearinghouse plans to activate this year an online registration system for manufacturers complying with state e-waste laws, Linnell said. The system will help manufacturers make available just once the information that all states seek and will provide state-specific data when they receive reminders, he said. “No two states have the exact registration requirements but we are hoping to promote some consistency among those as well and try to cut down or harmonize the questions that are being asked.” Twelve states are members of the clearinghouse and three are expected to join soon, he said.