Few Specifics in CE Industry E-Waste Initiative With Lofty Targets

CEA and several leading CE makers on Wednesday announced the launch of an industry-led electronics recycling initiative that has a goal of recycling one billion pounds of e-waste annually by 2016. The target includes the devices that will be recycled in the 25 states that have collection mandates, Walter Alcorn, CEA vice president of environmental affairs, told us.

The eCycling Leadership Initiative is just the “start of a process” that the industry developed over the last year, Alcorn said at a Wednesday event in Washington to announce the program. “This is a continuous, ongoing effort,” he said. The 2016 target represents a more than three-fold increase from the 300 million pounds the industry collected in 2010, he said. CEA did not provide specifics such as the number of additional CE companies and retailers that have signed on or the location of new collection sites. “There will be much more to come to educate consumers about collection opportunities in all states in the coming weeks,” Alcorn said.

CEA said the initiative is a “collaboration among consumer electronics, manufacturers, retailers, collectors, recyclers, non-governmental organizations and governments at all levels, coordinated by the CEA.” But at the launch event at Best Buy’s Tenleytown store in Washington, the only non-industry players present were representatives from the National Center for Electronics Recycling and the Northeast Recycling Council. The Electronics TakeBack Coalition has said it was not consulted about the proposal. And the Product Stewardship Institute, which had talks with CEA on the initiative, had said it had no idea what the industry was proposing. The institute represents state and local government agencies.

CEA said it supports “the movement” toward third-party certification of recyclers and “encourages more recycling in such facilities.” The industry is for “voluntary implementation of these recycler certification systems so that the billion pounds is recycled in third-party certified facilities,” it said. A “key tenet” of the initiative is recycling in a “safe and responsible manner,” Alcorn said at the event. That means no “dumping” of e-waste in developing countries, he said. Asked if CEA is setting an industry policy on e-waste exports, Alcorn told us that as a trade association CEA had to be careful that its policies don’t violate antitrust laws. CE companies are against dumping in developing countries, he said.

The industry now has 5,000 collection sites in the U.S. and that number is expected to “spike” with the new initiative, said David Thompson, director of Panasonic’s corporate environmental department. Thompson, who also heads the Electronic Manufacturers Recycling Management Co. known as MRM, said the industry will work with state and local governments on the use of existing solid waste infrastructure. MRM collected 90 million pounds of e-waste since its start in 2007, he said, and it’s targeting to collect another 90 million pounds this year. On the new initiative’s policy on “orphan” waste, Alcorn told us that participating companies already are collecting brands other than their own. To provide transparency, CEA will issue an annual “national progress report card” to track the initiative’s growth using 2010 as a baseline, it said.

The 300 million pounds collected in 2010 includes those in states with recycling mandates, Alcorn said. About a third of the total was collected in states without mandates, he said. As for the number of CE makers and retailers who have joined the initiative, he would say only that “this is an industry-wide initiative open to all.” CEA plans to release a list of participating companies in early 2012, he said.

"Where’s the beef?,” asked Barbara Kyle of the Electronics TakeBack Coalition. CEA announced a collection goal, “but where is their program,” she said. The association hasn’t provided any details such as names of companies involved and what they would do “that goes beyond complying with the state laws.” About 200 million of the 300 million pounds the industry said it collected in 2010 occurred in states “which have laws that require them to do it,” Kyle told us by email. “What are they going to do in addition to what the states require over the next five years?"

Most of the industry-led programs now are “weak,” Kyle said. “Some exist only on paper. So how will those be transformed into a meaningful national effort.” Environmental groups were “shocked not to see any commitment” to ensure that none of the billion pounds the industry collects is exported to developing countries, she said. “If this is truly a ‘leadership’ program on e-waste recycling, they need to have a very clear, firm policy saying they won’t be exporting toxic e-waste to developing countries."

The industry-led initiative is “misleading,” said Jim Puckett, executive director of the Basel Action Network. Despite CEA’s saying the use of recyclers and downstream processors who dump end-of-life electronics in developing nation should not be allowed, “they continue to offer no concrete commitment to abide by the Basel Convention and the Basel Ban Amendment, which make such exports illegal,” he said. Only the e-Stewards certification that BAN runs now “requires adherence to international law and bans the export of toxic e-waste to developing countries, including exports of broken equipment for reuse,” he said. Also the new industry initiative lists thousands of collection sites that “do not appear to have necessary controls in place to ensure only responsible domestic recycling will take place,” he said. “The net result of collecting more from the public without proper controls is a likely increase in exports of U.S. toxic e-waste to developing countries.”