Costco Board Agrees to Study E-Waste Takeback ‘Pilot Projects,’ Green Group Says

The green group As You Sow withdrew a shareholder proposal it had sought to have placed on the agenda of Costco’s last annual meeting, Jan. 29 in Bellevue, Washington, that would have asked the board to publish a report on the warehouse club's e-waste recycling practices, As You Sow said in its Proxy Preview 2015 report. As You Sow had wanted the report to detail Costco’s “policy options to reduce potential pollution and public health problems from electronic waste generated as a result of its sales to consumers, and to increase the safe recycling of such wastes,” the green group said. It withdrew the proposal after Costco’s board “agreed to meet three times in 2015" to discuss collecting and recycling electronics, "with an eye to developing a policy on the subject and setting up store-based take-back pilot projects,” the group said. As You Sow has planted nearly 100 resolutions and proposals on the agendas of corporate annual meetings in a "shareholder advocacy" program it credits with resulting in a "paradigm shift in the behavior of both shareholders and company management that is creating a new environmentally sustainable economy," its website says. Costco representatives didn’t comment.