Congress introduces bill to stop the global dumping of e-waste

United States Capitol

1 October 2010 – On Sept 29, 2010, Reps. Gene Green and Mike Thompson introduced a bill in Congress to make it illegal for U.S. “recyclers” to send toxic e-waste to developing nations.

It’s a common practice for “recyclers” to export electronic products from the U.S. to developing countries, where the toxics inside cause great harm.

This bill will allow exports of tested and working parts and products, as well as products under warranty, exported by the manufacturers, and products subject to recalls.

• Summary of the bill
• Text of the bill – The Responsible Electronic Recycling Act
• ETBC press release
• FAQs on global e-waste dumping
• Export issue briefing book
• Fact sheet on counterfeit chip problem, linked to exporting U.S. e-waste

Promoting Responsible Recycling

Congressional Resolution H.Res. 938:

Leading by example in handling e-waste from Congress

A new resolution has been introduced in Congress, calling on congress to develop a plan for managing its own e-waste, which requires the use of recyclers certified to the new e-Stewards standards, which prohibit export of e-waste to developing nations or sending e-waste to prison recycling operations.

The bipartisan resolution was sponsored by Rep. Mike Thompson (CA) and co-sponsored by Rep Gene Green (D-TX), Rep. Mary Bono-Mack (R-CA), and Brian Bilbray (R-CA).

The resolution, H.Res. 938, calls for Congress to establish and implement “a coordinated program for the reuse, recycling, and appropriate disposal of obsolete computers and other electronic equipment used by offices of the legislative branch using only those companies independently certified as meeting the e-Stewards Standard for Responsible Recycling and Reuse of Electronic Equipment, which forbids the export of e-waste to developing countries and use of prison labor.”

The e-Steward was developed by the Basel Action Network (BAN), a partner organization in the Electronics TakeBack Coalition. It is the highest standard in the industry, and the only standard that does not permit the export of e-waste to developing nations. For several years, BAN has operated a “Pledge” program, where recyclers would pledge to follow high standards voluntarily. BAN has taken the core principles of this pledge and developed it into a comprehensive standard, and has added an accredited certification program.

More information on the e-Steward program.

Export legislation

We are hopeful that Congress will introduce strong legislation to ban the export of toxic e-waste from the US to developing countries. This would be an historic step in bringing the US in line with the rest of the countries in the “developed” world, who have agreed to stop dumping their toxic e-waste on poor countries around the globe.

Legislation on E-Waste Research and Development

HR 1580: Electronic Waste Research and Development Act

Status: Passed House. Companion bill, S 1397 (Klobuchar) was introduced in Senate, assigned to EPW Committee.

Rep Bart Gordon introduced HR 1580, which:

• Authorizes the EPA to award grants for electronic waste reduction research, development, and demonstration projects. Grants will be awarded to educational institutions, working with industry, to conduct research to create innovative and practical approaches to reduce the volume and manage the environmental impacts of electronic waste
• Asks the National Academy of Sciences to conduct a study on how we can reduce the volume of electronic waste, specifically addressing
  • (i) recycling or safe disposal of electronic waste and low value materials recovered from such waste;
  • (ii) designing electronic devices to facilitate re-use and recycling; and
  • (iii) the re-use of electronic devices; and (B) making electronic devices safer and more environmentally friendly, specifically addressing reducing the use of hazardous materials and potentially hazardous materials in electronic devices;
  • the risks posed by disposal of electronic waste; and
  • the current status of research and training programs to promote the environmental design of electronic devices to reduce electronic waste.
• Awards grants to higher education institutions to develop curriculum on environmental design for electronics

House Science Committee E-Waste Hearings

The House Committee on Science and Technology has held two hearings on this issue.

Hearing on February 11, 2009 – Hearing info, topics, witness list.

Hearing on April 30, 2008. Link to testimony from the panel from last year’s hearings. Ted Smith, ETBC Chair, testified before the Committee, along with representatives from industry and academia.

Congressional Work on a National Takeback and Recycling Program.

There is currently no federal legislation pending to establish a federal takeback program.

Click here to learn more.

17 September 2010 (Seattle, WA) –The Certified e-Stewards® Initiative, the world’s first third-party audited, accredited international certification program for electronics recyclers that prohibits the export of e-waste to developing countries and enjoys the support of more than 70 environmental organizations, today announced its first Leadership Council. The Leadership Council will help guide the early development and promotion of the program to ensure truly responsible electronics recycling across the globe.

“We are very fortunate to have this first group of ardent and expert supporters of the e-Stewards Certification volunteer to help advise and shape this program to not only be the most principled electronics recycling certification in existence but the most practical and useful one as well,” said Jim Puckett, Executive Director of the Basel Action Network.

The new e-Stewards Leadership Council consists of representatives of five leading U.S. e-Recyclers: Capstone Wireless (TX), CloudBlue (OH), Electronic Recyclers International (CA), Surplus Exchange (MO) and WeRecycle! (NY). Philips Services Corp., with e-recycling collection facilities across the U.S., will represent e-waste collectors. Samsung and Wells Fargo, both enrolled in the e-Stewards Enterprise program, will represent electronics manufacturers and corporations that generate e-waste. A representative of the Natural Resources Defense Council and two government representatives will round out the Council, ensuring a diversity of viewpoints but all sharing in the common goal of ending e-waste mismanagement.

With disposal of toxic electronic waste on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s current priority list, companies and individuals are more aware than ever that recycling electronics responsibly means much more than passing old stuff off to the nearest place that will take it. Determining which recycling options are truly “green” can be an enormous challenge, but thanks to the Certified e-Stewards® Recycler program, selecting a globally responsible recycler is becoming easier than ever.

The Leadership Council will provide recommendations to BAN in the areas of technical and business issues, policy expertise, marketing and, as appropriate, promotional efforts and governmental lobbying. All members have demonstrated a depth of knowledge of industry issues and a passion to facilitate the achievement of the e-Stewards mission.

The complete list of e-Stewards Leadership Council members is available on the e-Stewards and BAN website.

For more information contact:

Jim Puckett, Executive Director, jpuckett@ban.org, 206-652-5555
Lauren Roman, e-Stewards Business Director, lroman@ban.org, 206-652-5555

EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson

17 August 2010 (Guanajuato, Mexico) – EPA Chief Administrator Lisa Jackson declared yesterday that preventing e-waste and its irresponsible management was one of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s top six newly announced global priorities. The other five priorities were reducing carbon emissions, improving air quality, improving water quality, reducing toxics exposures and building stronger institutional frameworks. Her comments came at yesterday evening’s public reception to launch the 17th Session of the Commission on Environmental Cooperation, a body created with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to mitigate environmental impacts of trade between Canada, Mexico and the United States.

“We applaud the EPA and Lisa Jackson on her recognition that the toxic threat of e-waste is one of the most serious environmental concerns of our time,” said Jim Puckett, Executive Director of the Basel Action Network, who attended the session. “The amounts of e-waste we are creating is staggering, and then the practice of sweeping the techno-trash out the back door to developing countries is shameful.”

According to BAN, the first order of business is to pass legislation banning the export of this new form of toxic waste. Secondly, the environmentalists call for all manufacturers to set a date for becoming toxic free and refusing to ever again use toxic inputs.

Jackson’s announcement comes on the heels of a formal recognition by the EPA of the e-Stewards® Certification for electronics recyclers. E-Stewards is the only certification for e-waste recyclers that is consistent with international law and forbids the most egregious current practices of electronics recyclers such as exporting toxic e-waste to developing countries, using prison labor, and dumping toxics in municipal landfills. The e-Stewards Certification is also the only such program with the backing of over 70 environmental organizations and major companies like Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Samsung.

“We are excited and relieved that, eight years from the time BAN first showed the world pictures of the devastation in China from US e-waste exports, it is beginning to look like we as a nation are finally resolved to take responsibility and solve this crisis,” observes Puckett.

e-Stewards Certification: www.e-stewards.org

Basel Action Network: www.ban.org

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s current priority list

Contact: Jim Puckett, Executive Director, jpuckett@ban.org or send text message to 206-354-0391.

November 10, 2008 (Seattle) – The Basel Action Network and the Electronics TakeBack Coalition joined today with 32 electronics recyclers in the United States and Canada to announce that the e-Stewards program, which identifies the most responsible recyclers in North America, is soon to be fully accredited and certified.

The e-Steward Certification will be the continent’s first independently audited and accredited electronic waste recycler certification program. It will forbid the dumping of toxic e-waste in developing countries, local landfills and incinerators; the use of prison labor to process e-waste; and the unauthorized release of private data contained in discarded computers.

“Unfortunately today, most of those companies calling themselves electronics recyclers are scammers,” said Sarah Westervelt, e-Stewards project coordinator at the Basel Action Network (BAN.) “They simply load up containers of old computers and ship them off to China or Africa. By choosing an e-Steward recycler, consumers and large businesses are assured that their old computers and TVs will be safely managed and not simply tossed into a local landfill, processed unsafely by prison laborers, or exported to developing countries.”

The e-Stewards announcement follows Sunday’s gritty exposé on CBS’ 60 Minutes, Following the Trail of Toxic e-Waste; the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s recently aired Electronic Dumping Ground; and a recent episode of the French Canadian Program Panorama, Electronic Waste: The Hidden Face of Recycling (in French). These programs reveal that computers given to recyclers in the United States and Canada are likely to be dumped in China or Africa, where e-waste is causing immeasurable environmental and health problems.

In September, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) also released a report, Electronic Waste: EPA Needs to Better Control Harmful U.S. Exports through Stronger Enforcement and More Comprehensive Regulation, denouncing the lack of government controls and enforcement over e-waste exports. The Electronic TakeBack Coalition and BAN are also pursuing federal legislation to ban national exports. If the legislation passes, the audited certification program will serve as a strong enforcement tool.

“The e-Stewards project is a response to the failure of government and industry to act as responsible global citizens in the age of information technology,” said Jim Puckett, BAN executive director. “It is also a wonderful example of how industry leaders and activists can move mountains when they work together — in this case, move mountains of e-waste to truly responsible recyclers.”

The e-Stewards already include 32 companies in 92 locations that have been qualified by BAN. Today, BAN announced that by early 2010 the program will feature an ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board (ANAB) certification system with third-party auditing. The funding to create this robust certification program was provided by 14 recycling companies designated as e-Steward Founders.

The e-Steward Founders are Boliden AB, California Electronic Asset Recovery, Cascade Asset Management, ECS Refining, Electronic Recyclers International, GreenCitizen, Hesstech, Metech, Redemtech, RELectronics, the Surplus Exchange, Total Reclaim, Waste Management Recycle America, and WeRecycle!.

“Currently, the truly responsible recyclers in the US and Canada face unfair competition from the thousands of unethical, so-called ‘waste recyclers’ in North America that would more accurately be called ‘waste shippers,” said Neil Peters-Michaud of e-Steward Founder, Cascade Asset Management. “We strongly support a certified, audited program to separate the legitimate recyclers from the low-road operators. We urge consumers and businesses to only use qualified e-Stewards and thus make sure that their old electronics are being safely recycled here at home.”

To view a short film on e-Stewards, E-Stewardship: Taking Responsibility in the IT Age, click here.

For interviews with e-Stewards, contact:

Bob Houghton, President, Redemtech, 614-850-3326
Neil-Peters Michaud, CEO, Cascade Asset Management, 608-316-6637
Mike Wright, CEO, Guaranteed Recycling Experts, 720-377-7700

For more information about:

The e-Stewards Initiative: www.e-Stewards.org
Global e-waste dumping: www.ban.org
The Electronics TakeBack Coalition: www.computertakeback.com

CONTACTS:

Sarah Westervelt;
206-652-5751, swestervelt@ban.org

Jim Puckett
206-652-5555, jpuckett@ban.org

April 3, 2009 – Recently, the Malaysian government decided to no longer accept any CRT glass from the United States, as of December 31, 2008. There appears to be confusion about what role, if any, BAN played in this nation’s decision. Here are the facts:

Fact: CRT tubes and glass are specifically listed as a regulated waste under the Basel Convention. (www.basel.int Annex VIII, A 2010) The Basel Convention defines hazardous waste as a material that is destined for either recycling or disposal that contains toxic constituents listed in Annex I (such as lead) unless it can be shown not to exhibit a hazardous characteristic found in Annex III (such as toxicity). In order to facilitate implementation of the Convention, the Parties created Annex VIII, which was intended to examine various waste streams to determine which wastes do possess both the hazardous constituents and the hazardous characteristics. Thus, if a waste is listed on Annex VIII, it has already been examined by the Parties and shown to be hazardous, and therefore there is little possibility to exempt it from the Basel Convention, other than declaring it as a non-waste because it is not destined for recycling or disposal operations.

Fact: Parties to the Basel Convention (such as Malaysia) are legally bound not to trade in Basel wastes with non-Parties (such as the United States) [Article 4, Paragraph 5 www.basel.int). Malaysia has also ratified the Basel Convention’s Ban Amendment, and has implemented it in a way designed to ban the importation of hazardous wastes from developed countries.

Fact: BAN and ETBC’s e-Stewards program supports CRT glass going into the glass-to-glass market (e.g. for the manufacture of new CRTs) if it is done in compliance with the Basel Convention. Thus, based on a widely-shared interpretation of the Basel definitions, our program requires that, prior to export:

1. The phosphors and other potentially toxic dusts must be removed from the CRT cullet and managed responsibly in developed countries, and
2. The ‘competent authority’ of the importing country must formally consent to accept the cleaned cullet as a non-waste because it essentially meets specifications to be used as a direct replacement feedstock in a primary manufacturing process to create new consumer products without further processing, other than quality control – that is, it is not going to a recycling destination and no further cleaning or processing is needed prior to entering into primary manufacturing.

Action Taken: Because we became aware of the fact that Malaysia was importing cullet as a waste for further cleaning and processing, BAN (whose mission involves pressing for compliance with the Basel Convention and the Basel Ban) sent a letter on October 7, 2008 to the Malaysian competent authority asking for their position on cleaned cullet relative to the Basel Convention. In the letter, BAN iterated its support for glass-to-glass recycling and for the interpretation as non-waste, as described above. We offered to support Malaysia or another Basel country in approaching all the Basel Parties to formally request that cleaned, furnace-ready cullet be explicitly exempted from Basel regulation (for all Basel nations). BAN did not call for a prohibition of the importation but rather offered a long term solution. Instead of accepting the idea we offered (to declare the cleaned cullet a non-waste and work with us to amend the Basel Annexes accordingly), the Malaysian government instead made the decision to stop the import of all CRT glass from the US, a non-Party to the Basel Convention. BAN, of course, has no authority to make decisions for countries on import prohibitions. We continue to seek Basel Convention compliance but at the same time encourage the designation of cleaned cullet going to glass-to-glass primary processing facilities as a non-waste under the Basel Convention.

BAN News Release

June 4, 2009 (Seattle, WA.) – The Basel Action Network (BAN) joined the ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board (ANAB) today in announcing the launch of ANAB accreditation for the certifying bodies that will audit and certify the e-Stewards Certification program. At the heart of the new e-Stewards Certification is an ethical ‘gold standard’ for responsible electronic equipment recycling – the only such standard that will finally put a stop to the export of toxic electronic waste to developing countries; the use of prison and child labor; and the dumping of toxic materials into our local landfills. ANAB provides accreditation to certifying bodies for many ISO standards and now has expanded their scope to include the e-Stewards Certification program which is fully integrated with the ISO 14001 environmental management system standard.

“The e-Stewards Standard provides true accountability for responsible disposal of electronic waste, and with ANAB’s oversight of the certification program, we intend to provide the consumer confidence and value,” Randy Dougherty, ANAB Vice President, said.

“We warmly welcome the vote of confidence from North America’s leading accreditation body and their recognition of the need for a rigorous and ethical certification that consumers can use to finally be assured that their old computers will not end up poisoning children in China or Africa, nor contaminate our own groundwater here at home,” said Sarah Westervelt, BAN’s e-Stewardship Program Director.

After years of frustration while contributing to multi-stakeholder standards development with the U.S. EPA and others, BAN realized that entrenched special interests would never agree to more than the lowest common denominator standards that would unfortunately fail to serve the marketplace of responsible customers and would even continue to allow practices that violate the laws of importing countries. So last year, BAN decided to work independently with the best electronics manufacturers, recyclers, asset recovery companies, refiners, and experts to define a rigorous but practical global standard with environmental, social, and occupational parameters to finally solve the “e-waste anarchy.”

Last fall, CBS’s 60 Minutes program featured BAN and highlighted the rampant practice of sham recyclers exporting toxic e-waste to Guiyu, China rather than ethically recycling it. In China, this highly poisonous waste was processed by impoverished workers using primitive technologies that produce in heavy contamination: for example, children in Guiyu have lead levels in their blood 80% higher than in control populations.

CBS continues to urge consumers to use the e-Steward recyclers. Just last week, BAN exposed another fake recycler that duped the Humane Society in a Pittsburgh, PA into sponsoring a free public e-waste collection event that promised local recycling. Instead, the company, while posing as an ethical recycler, actualy exported the collected e-waste to developing countries.

Jim Puckett, the Executive Director of the Basel Action Network, observes “Corporate customers demand responsible management of their electronic waste, but they have often been duped by an industry that profits from a global shell game of shunting wastes, American jobs and responsibility offshore. E-Steward certification is the first and best independent assurance that enterprise requirements will actually be met.”

In addition to ANAB providing accreditation for the e-Stewards program, SAI-Global will be providing auditor training for ANAB-accredited e-Stewards certifying bodies. The certification is in the final stages of development, with the Final Verification Phase about to begin, resulting in the first accredited certifications in 2009 and a full launch of the certification program to all comers in early 2010.

For more information:

About the e-Stewards Recyclers and Certification Program: www.e-stewards.org

Recent research Report: The EarthECycle Pittsburgh Recycling Scam is available at www.ban.org/Library/PittsburghScam.pdf

Photographs of unethical recycling available at www.ban.org/photogallery

Contact at BAN: Sarah Westervelt, (206) 652-5555, swestervelt@ban.org
Contact at ANAB: Penny Gamache, 800-606-5394, ext. 7275, pgamache@anab.org

Brief excerpt:  “…some of the original backers of R2 are now throwing their support to the more stringent global standard called e-Stewards Standard for Responsible Recycling and Reuse of Electronic Equipment, or simply e-Stewards for short. The e-Stewards standard is now championed by BAN and is accepted internationally as ISO 14001. The regulations are much more detailed than those of R2 and encompass global needs, not just those of the United States.”

]]> http://e-stewards.org/home-page-sticky-post/feed/ 0 http://e-stewards.org/bans-webinar-on-e-stewards-for-the-epeat-program/ http://e-stewards.org/bans-webinar-on-e-stewards-for-the-epeat-program/#comments Wed, 09 Sep 2009 23:10:24 +0000 admin http://localhost/clients/current/estewards/?p=309 Add some introduction here

Recording of BAN’s Webinar on e-Stewards for the EPEAT Program (Video/WMV) –
September 9, 2009 – Requires the free GoToMeeting® Video Codec
(Right-click to download the video to your hard drive)