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MON
Apr 21st
2014

  • Deadline Reminder: Upgrade to Version 2.0
  • e-Stewards Survey Incentive Program
  • R2 at Odds with Basel Convention
  • CRT Management in Utah
  • CRT Management Policy Guidance
  • Update of Terms for Website Listing for New Recyclers
  • What's New

Deadline Reminder: Upgrade to Version 2.0

Upgrade your environmental, health & safety management system to Version 2. Hopefully, you are already upgrading your management system to the new standard (click here). Please remember that all e-Stewards audits (surveillance and certification audits) conducted after May 1, 2014 must be against the new Version 2.0 of the e-Stewards Standard. If your audits result in non-conformities to V2 (but not V1), your certification body (CB) may give you until May 1, 2015 to have all of the following completed:

  • Close out all non-conformities to Version 2,
  • Submit to BAN a new Revenue Verification Form,
  • Allow time for your CB to complete their process and issue a V2 certificate to you by that date.

By the end of April 2014, SAI Global, the exclusive provider for e-Stewards auditor training, will have completed four auditor retraining courses (retraining existing auditors to Version 2), as well as two lead auditor training courses for new e-Stewards auditors. This means your certification body (and their accreditation body) should have the competency to audit your ‘upgraded’ management system to Version 2.

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e-Stewards Survey Incentive Program

The e-Stewards Survey Incentive Program has gotten off to an excellent start with our first survey going live April 7th, 2014. The purpose of the survey is to collect valuable demographic data, which may be used to inform market strategies. Vintage Tech Recyclers generously donated a refurbished iPad 2 to incentivize our inaugural survey. They have also offered to share the link to our online survey with their networks and affiliates, ensuring we get plenty of responses.

We would like to share this data with all our certified e-Stewards recyclers so you can use this to connect with your markets better, keeping in mind this data is relevant to enterprises as well. In order to make this data as accurate and representative as possible, we need as many responses from across the nation and beyond. To do that, we’re asking you to share our survey link with your social media networks and on your digital properties, e.g., blogs, websites. We have a series of Tweets already formulated that you can use and forward to your affiliates and partners. Read more...

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R2 at odds with Basel Convention

Recently, R2 Solutions published a paper and a press release asserting R2 compliance with the Basel Convention. This was rather surprising to us here at BAN because it is the lack of compliance with the Basel Convention and its decision to ban the export of hazardous waste to developing countries that precipitated the environmental community and many recyclers walking away from the R2 process to create the e-Stewards Standard which DOES comply with the Basel Convention and its decisions. Please read the quick rebuttal written by BAN to set this record straight.

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CRT Management in Utah

BAN continues to be appalled at the horrific management of CRTs and CRT glass that is on display in many parts of the US. We are finding that many agencies, charged with enforcing RCRA and the CRT rule are neither knowlegeable nor proactive about accumulative speculation of CRT glass, about the dangers of outdoor storage, dangers of toxic phosphors, etc. Earlier, BAN exposed the abandonment of CRT glass in Yuma, Arizona by the company Dow Management. A recent visit there revealed that much of that material remains there to this day. The latest disaster we have witnessed occurred in Utah. Please read our short Back to Top

CRT Management Policy Guidance

Earlier, BAN published a clarification of what the e-Stewards Standard says about landfilling CRT glass. It is allowed but only as a "last resort" and under strict conditions. Today we have published official guidance for Certifying Bodies and e-Stewards about the various options and how the term "last resort" will be verified. In the next days, BAN will be publishing a Sanctioned Interpretation for Version 1 to align the two standards on this issue. With our prohibition on export, prison labor, and forbidding any corporate facilities from not being certified, the e-Stewards Standard continues to be the most restrictive standard with respect to social and environmental criteria for overall management of this critical waste stream. Next, BAN will be working on proposed rules to prevent irresponsible stockpiling and abandonment. Stay tuned!

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Update of Terms for Website Listing for New Recyclers

In order to continue making improvements and provide the highest level of integrity to the e-Stewards program, an update has been initiated regarding the terms of the website policy for candidate recycling companies and all locations to be listed as recyclers “in-process” for certification. From April 21, 2014 and later, candidates for certification must first complete their Stage 1 audits prior to being listed on the e-Stewards website as “in-process”. “In-process” company locations currently listed on the e-Stewards website (i.e. prior to April 21st) will have a maximum of six months from the time they were posted to complete Stage 1 audits, or meet the original established deadline, whichever comes first. Please see the e-Stewards website for the complete policy for website listing at www.e-stewards.org.

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What's New

  • New e-Stewards Certified Recyclers
    • C4 Metal, Payette, Idaho
    • GLS Group, Ontario, California

  • New e-Stewards Enterprises
    • Aflac Insurance

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