Electronics Industry Agrees to Front-End Finance for Waste Environmentalists Skeptical of Details, Implementation

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Electronics Industry Agrees to Front-End Finance for Waste

Environmentalists Skeptical of Details, Implementation

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Electronics Industry Agrees to Front-End Finance for Waste

Environmentalists Skeptical of Details, Implementation

Pressure from state campaigns vital to sustainable solution

WISCONSIN, MADISON, Mar. 20 -/E-Wire/-- The recent agreement by representatives of the U.S. consumer electronics industry to work toward front-end financing for electronic waste collection and recycling represents the first mile-marker of a public policy marathon. The electronics industry's new commitment to make progress is a marked change and bears witness to the state-level momentum building for producer responsibility. However, the National Electronic Product Stewardship Initiative (NEPSI) announcement must not divert attention away from dozens of issues not yet resolved and equal numbers not yet addressed, according to founding organizations of the Computer TakeBack Campaign.

"It is significant that industry representatives appear to be moving away from their previous hard-line opposition to front-end financial responsibility for their products, while acknowledging the need for legislation, but we are a long way from popping the corks," says Michael Bender of the Mercury Policy Project. "Our grassroots campaign will continue at the state and local level in order to push manufacturers to take responsibility for the life-cycle impacts of their products," continues Bender. Environmentalists have long advocated that a front-end financing system is an essential first step in the development of a safe and effective recycling system for e-waste. Producer responsibility legislation is pending in several states, including California and Massachusetts.

"NEPSI's recent agreement to make progress toward a front-end financing mechanism for recovery of e-waste comes after a year of structured dialogue. But unlike a year-old infant's first step, this baby-step is not a major milestone," says David Wood, Program Director of the GrassRoots Recycling Network (GRRN). "The agreement 'to work toward the development of a front-end financed system' does not ensure the ultimate implementation of such a financing system and says nothing about the dozens of issues related to the structure and performance criteria of the collection system to be financed. The agreement reached is but a small drop in an ocean of major issues," continues Wood.

GRRN and the Mercury Policy Project are among the founding members of the Computer TakeBack Campaign, a new national grassroots effort promoting producer responsibility in the consumer electronics and personal computer industries. The TakeBack Campaign is not formally represented in the NEPSI process, though two of the Campaign's founders are NEPSI participants.

"We are encouraged that the electronics industry now appears to agree that producer responsibility for a front end financing and incentive system is needed to facilitate the safe and effective recycling of obsolete and hazardous electronics," says Mark Murray, Executive Director of Californians Against Waste (CAW). CAW is leading the California legislative campaign. "However, we see nothing in the two paragraph NEPSI announcement that should preclude California and other states and local governments from moving forward with legislation for the implementation of a model recycling system for hazardous and other obsolete electronics. Over the next six months, while the electronics industry debates the details of an electronics collection, reuse and recycling system, more than one million additional hazardous computer monitors and TV's will become obsolete in California, adding to the 6 million already stockpiled in households," continues Murray.

"After a year of discussions, this is a good first step forward," says Ted Smith, Executive Director of the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition and NEPSI representative. "It is important that industry has now agreed that we need to develop a 'front-end' financing solution to the e-waste crisis and that it will take legislation to accomplish this. But there are many difficult issues that remain and now we need to buckle down to address them if we are to meet our goal of developing a truly effective system for life cycle responsibility for electronic products."

The Campaign's Take It Back Platform, developed over a year ago, includes many important elements that have not yet factored into the NEPSI dialogue, including product re-design and phase out of hazardous substances, environmentally superior collection and product recycling standards, and bans on export of hazardous waste and use of prison labor. The platform may be accessed on-line at http://www.grrn.org/e-scrap/e-scrap_platform.html.

Founding members of the Computer TakeBack Campaign include: As You Sow Foundation, Clean Production Network, Clean Water Action, Communication Workers of America, ecopledge.com, GrassRoots Recycling Network, INFORM, Institute for Local Self-Reliance, Materials for the Future Foundation, Mercury Policy Project, and Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition.

GrassRoots Recycling Network

David Wood, [REDACTED-PHONE],

Michael Bender, [REDACTED-PHONE],

Mark Murray, [REDACTED-PHONE]

http://www.grrn.org/e-scrap/e-scrap_platform.html

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