EPA Names e-Stewards Certified Recyclers as Route to Responsible e-Recycling
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has now formally recognized the e-Stewards® Recycler Certification and associated e-Stewards® Standard for the Responsible Recycling and Reuse of Electronic Equipment. Click here for the full story.
EPA’s Lisa Jackson Calls for Legislation to limit e-waste export
At a recent INTERPOL meeting in Washington, D.C., EPA Chief Lisa Jackson formally addressed the e-waste export issue head-on for the first time. “We need to make some changes to ensure safe management of our used electronics”, she said. “This includes legislative fixes that will help limit harmful exports that are happening under the name of legitimate reuse, refurbishment and recycling…” BAN representatives attended the meeting and Executive Director Jim Puckett was a guest speaker.INTERPOL is the International Criminal Police Organization, which includes 188 member countries and facilitates international police cooperation. INTERPOL, the second largest international organization behind the UN, has created a special environmental crime unit and task force on preventing illegal e-waste trade known as the Global e-Waste Crime Group. The meeting this month in Alexandria, VA, was the first face-to-face meeting of this group.Participants from the INTERPOL member countries recognize that the lack of appropriate laws in the US to stem the tide of illegal trade (illegal from the importing countries’ perspective) is a significant obstacle for getting the global toxic trade under control. The CRT rule is viewed as being largely ineffectual and criminal laws can only go so far in prosecuting recyclers and brokers that export toxic e-waste. For these reasons, it was especially significant that the first meeting of the group took place in the US where numerous EPA regulators and enforcers were on hand to discuss the problem. It is no accident, therefore, that EPA chief Lisa Jackson called for the need for better legislation.
City of San Jose May Require All Recyclers to become e-Stewards Certified
At the City of San Jose’s Rules Committee meeting last week, City Council member Ash Kaltra sponsored a proposal to place stricter regulations on e-waste recyclers. The proposal calls for a requirement that all local e-waste recyclers be certified to the e-Stewards Standard. The proposal will next go before the Transportation & Environmental Committee prior to a council vote. This marks the first time a municipality or other governing body has considered making certification a requirement for doing business.
BAN Seeks Legal Relief from “Inappropriate and Misleading” Trademark
On June 7th BAN filed a legal complaint in Federal District Court in Seattle against ISRI and IAER for their trademark “certified electronics recycler” which ISRI has transferred from the old IAER certification to the RIOS/R2 certification program. BAN claims that the use of common nouns and adjectives cannot be the basis for an identifying trademark, and its claim to exclusive use of these words deprives the e-Stewards program and its licensees from being able to describe the e-Stewards certification, while leaving the public with the impression that there is only one certification program in existence.
BAN Presents e-Stewards Certification Program to the Basel Convention
Moving toward international implementation of the e-Stewards programs, BAN addressed a well-attended side event at the United Nations Basel Convention’s Open Ended Working Group (OEWG) session in Geneva in May. BAN’s Sarah Westervelt presented a description of the e-Stewards Standard and certification to the delegates for the first time, receiving plaudits from both delegates and the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) for creating an accredited, certifiable, auditable standard and verification system. BAN also addressed the full body of delegates at OEWG meeting, calling on them to move the Basel Ban Amendment into rapid force and praised the countries of Moldova, Kenya, Chile, Ireland and Italy for their recent ratifications of the Ban Amendment.
The Ban Amendment, upon which the e-Stewards Standard bases its export provisions, is the 1995 global agreement that prohibits export of all hazardous wastes from moving from rich to poorer countries, thereby externalizing and severely harming the people and environment in developing nations.
BAN Promotes e-Stewards Recycers at CleanMed and IERCE Conferences
BAN again represented all e-Stewards Recyclers in panel discussions at last month’s Clean Med conference in Baltimore and the International Electronics Recycling Conference and Expo (IERCE) in San Francisco.
CleanMed’s purpose is to catalyze environmental improvements in the health care sector. Hospitals and health care facilities purchase huge numbers of IT and electronic medical equipment and will be spending billions of dollars over the next few years as they migrate to electronic medical records (EMR) systems. BAN’s Lauren Roman joined Bob Houghton, President of Redemtech and John Kendle, Ops Director for Catholic Healthcare West, who explained the benefits of the e-Stewards programs from recycler and enterprise perspectives.
At IERCE, a new e-waste industry conference holding its second such event, Lauren Roman moderated and spoke about the benefits of the e-Stewards programs, followed by Paul Burke of Orion Registrar with the ABC’s of Certification (“About”, “Basics” and “Costs”). Mark Vander Kooy of CloudBlue finished the session explaining why CloudBlue chose e-Stewards Certification and what the company’s experience of completing the process for multiple sites has been to date.
Hundreds of new e-Stewards promotional brochures were distributed to all attendees at both conferences.
EPA Names e-Stewards Certified Recyclers as Route to Responsible Electronics Recycling
EPA Calls for e-Waste Legislation
San Jose moves to require e-Stewards Certification
BAN Seeks Legal Relief
BAN Promotes e-Stewards Recyclers
EPA Names e-Stewards Certified Recyclers as Route to Responsible e-Recycling
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has now formally recognized the e-Stewards® Recycler Certification and associated e-Stewards® Standard for the Responsible Recycling and Reuse of Electronic Equipment. Click here for the full story.
EPA’s Lisa Jackson Calls for Legislation to limit e-waste export
At a recent INTERPOL meeting in Washington, D.C., EPA Chief Lisa Jackson formally addressed the e-waste export issue head-on for the first time. “We need to make some changes to ensure safe management of our used electronics”, she said. “This includes legislative fixes that will help limit harmful exports that are happening under the name of legitimate reuse, refurbishment and recycling…” BAN representatives attended the meeting and Executive Director Jim Puckett was a guest speaker.INTERPOL is the International Criminal Police Organization, which includes 188 member countries and facilitates international police cooperation. INTERPOL, the second largest international organization behind the UN, has created a special environmental crime unit and task force on preventing illegal e-waste trade known as the Global e-Waste Crime Group. The meeting this month in Alexandria, VA, was the first face-to-face meeting of this group.Participants from the INTERPOL member countries recognize that the lack of appropriate laws in the US to stem the tide of illegal trade (illegal from the importing countries’ perspective) is a significant obstacle for getting the global toxic trade under control. The CRT rule is viewed as being largely ineffectual and criminal laws can only go so far in prosecuting recyclers and brokers that export toxic e-waste. For these reasons, it was especially significant that the first meeting of the group took place in the US where numerous EPA regulators and enforcers were on hand to discuss the problem. It is no accident, therefore, that EPA chief Lisa Jackson called for the need for better legislation.
City of San Jose May Require All Recyclers to become e-Stewards Certified
At the City of San Jose’s Rules Committee meeting last week, City Council member Ash Kaltra sponsored a proposal to place stricter regulations on e-waste recyclers. The proposal calls for a requirement that all local e-waste recyclers be certified to the e-Stewards Standard. The proposal will next go before the Transportation & Environmental Committee prior to a council vote. This marks the first time a municipality or other governing body has considered making certification a requirement for doing business.
BAN Seeks Legal Relief from “Inappropriate and Misleading” Trademark
On June 7th BAN filed a legal complaint in Federal District Court in Seattle against ISRI and IAER for their trademark “certified electronics recycler” which ISRI has transferred from the old IAER certification to the RIOS/R2 certification program. BAN claims that the use of common nouns and adjectives cannot be the basis for an identifying trademark, and its claim to exclusive use of these words deprives the e-Stewards program and its licensees from being able to describe the e-Stewards certification, while leaving the public with the impression that there is only one certification program in existence.
BAN Presents e-Stewards Certification Program to the Basel Convention
Moving toward international implementation of the e-Stewards programs, BAN addressed a well-attended side event at the United Nations Basel Convention’s Open Ended Working Group (OEWG) session in Geneva in May. BAN’s Sarah Westervelt presented a description of the e-Stewards Standard and certification to the delegates for the first time, receiving plaudits from both delegates and the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) for creating an accredited, certifiable, auditable standard and verification system. BAN also addressed the full body of delegates at OEWG meeting, calling on them to move the Basel Ban Amendment into rapid force and praised the countries of Moldova, Kenya, Chile, Ireland and Italy for their recent ratifications of the Ban Amendment.
The Ban Amendment, upon which the e-Stewards Standard bases its export provisions, is the 1995 global agreement that prohibits export of all hazardous wastes from moving from rich to poorer countries, thereby externalizing and severely harming the people and environment in developing nations.
BAN Promotes e-Stewards Recycers at CleanMed and IERCE Conferences
BAN again represented all e-Stewards Recyclers in panel discussions at last month’s Clean Med conference in Baltimore and the International Electronics Recycling Conference and Expo (IERCE) in San Francisco.
CleanMed’s purpose is to catalyze environmental improvements in the health care sector. Hospitals and health care facilities purchase huge numbers of IT and electronic medical equipment and will be spending billions of dollars over the next few years as they migrate to electronic medical records (EMR) systems. BAN’s Lauren Roman joined Bob Houghton, President of Redemtech and John Kendle, Ops Director for Catholic Healthcare West, who explained the benefits of the e-Stewards programs from recycler and enterprise perspectives.
At IERCE, a new e-waste industry conference holding its second such event, Lauren Roman moderated and spoke about the benefits of the e-Stewards programs, followed by Paul Burke of Orion Registrar with the ABC’s of Certification (“About”, “Basics” and “Costs”). Mark Vander Kooy of CloudBlue finished the session explaining why CloudBlue chose e-Stewards Certification and what the company’s experience of completing the process for multiple sites has been to date.
Hundreds of new e-Stewards promotional brochures were distributed to all attendees at both conferences.