US Federal Bill on E-Waste Policies

Excerpt from Greener Computing, 21 July 2009

'... The Electronic Device Recycling Research and Development Act, a nearly identical version of which passed the U.S. House of Representatives in April, provides almost $85 million over the next three years to help spur the growth of electronics recycling practices in the U.S.

The bill, S. 1397, includes four main initiatives: providing grants for R&D into e-waste processes and practices, funding research into environmentally friendly materials for use in electronics, establishing educational curricula for engineering students at all levels to incorporate green design practices into electronics, and publishing a report from the National Academy of Sciences laying out the good and the bad in the current state of electronics recycling.

"For too long, too many people have been improperly dumping electronic devices without being aware of the dangerous effects on our environment," Senator Gillibrand said in a statement.

"This legislation is a win-win for protecting the environment and our families. It takes the right steps to develop the best methods to change the way we dispose of outdated and unused electronics, and the hazardous materials they often contain."

The largest chunk of the proposed funding in the bill - $18 million in 2010, $20 million in 2011, and $22 million in 2012 - goes to research in just about every area of concern in green electronics, from design to disposal or reuse:

(1) Increase the efficiency of and improve electronic device collection and recycling;

(2) Expand the uses and applications for materials recovered from electronic devices;

(3) Develop and demonstrate environmentally friendly alternatives to the use of hazardous and potentially hazardous materials in electronic devices and the production of such devices;

(4) Develop methods to identify, separate, and remove hazardous and potentially hazardous materials from electronic devices and to reuse, recycle, or dispose of such materials in a safe manner;

(5) Reconsider product design and assembly to facilitate and improve refurbishment, reuse, and recycling of electronic devices, including an emphasis on design for recycling;

(6) Conduct lifecycle analyses of electronic devices, including developing tools and methods to assess the environmental impacts of the production, use, and end-of-life management of electronic devices and electronic device components;

(7) Develop product design, tools, and techniques to extend the lifecycle of electronic devices, including methods to promote their upgrade and safe reuse; and

(8) Identify the social, behavioral, and economic barriers to recycling and reuse for electronic devices and develop strategies to increase awareness, consumer acceptance, and the practice of responsible recycling and reuse for such devices.

The bill also sets aside about $5 million per year for the next three years to train engineering students about green design and design for end of life issues.

But also quite significant is the $3 million per year the bill designates for building a database of green alternatives to the materials traditionally used in electronics.

As we're already seeing on other product-design fronts...having this kind of readily accessible database of green materials for product design creates a kind of snowball effect: as more and more manufacturers have access to this information, designing green becomes something approaching an industry standard rather than a product-differentiation feature, and (hopefully) a race to the top starts to take place.

The Senate bill, should it pass and be signed into law, would speed the adoption of new technologies for recycling and reusing electronic waste. But the law does not create a federal standard for takeback programs, which vary from state to state. There are currently 20 states with takeback laws on the books, the most recent being Indiana, although Wisconsin has a law currently wending its way through the state's legislature.

In addition to the patchwork of state laws, there are more than a handful of industry-led initiatives for dealing with e-waste, with the most notably green option being the E-Stewards Initiative launched at the end of 2008 in response to a weakening of a proposed federal program.

For a good overview of how companies are trying - but still oftentimes failing - to incorporate solid e-waste policies in the absence of federal standards, check out Robert Houghton's article 'Responsible Electronics Recycling: Turning Policy into Practice'. Houghton is the CEO of Redemtech, one of the companies leading the E-Stewards project, and has years of insight into the shortcomings of the country's e-waste policies.'