What Is Electronic Waste?

Electronic waste generally refers to old consumer electronics such as computers, televisions, game consoles – anything with a cathode ray tube (CRT) or a circuit board that contains potentially hazardous components such as lead or mercury. There is no set definition for what types of appliances are included in electronic waste. Some programs adopt a broad definition, including kitchen appliances, lights, and office equipment; while others limit the definition to CRTs. The sample legislation provided defines electronic waste as anything with a circuit board, complex circuitry, signal processing, or that contains one or more hazardous substances.

Electronic products contain metals and plastics that are hazardous to humans and the environment if they are not properly handled. These toxic substances include lead, mercury, cadmium, PCB’s, silicon, arsenic, chromium, barium, brominated flame retardants and PVC plastics that release dioxin. When electronic waste is put in landfills or incinerated, these toxic substances are released in to the air, soil and water.

What Is Currently Done With Electronic Waste?

Over 20 million personal computers became obsolete in 1998. Only 13 percent were reused or recycled.(11) In the year 2000, there were almost 170 million computers in use in the United States. New computer technology hits the market every 18 months or so, and the average personal computer becomes “obsolete” in about two years. Based on these figures, the National Safety Council estimates that there will be 500 million obsolete computers in 2007.(7) There are probably twice as many televisions as computer monitors in use, but fewer are recycled. Each year the U.S. generates 5-7 million tons of electronic waste. About 2% of this is recycled, 30% is stored, and the rest ends up in a landfill. Studies estimate that the volume of electronic waste is growing 3-5% annually, three times faster than the municipal waste stream.(5)

Because there are very few programs dealing with electronic waste, many consumers have stored their old televisions and computers instead of throwing them out. Of the 14 million personal computers and 17 million televisions retired this year, 85% will be stored in attics and warehouses. When programs are established, this backlog of obsolete equipment will most likely be recycled in a short time. As the baby boom generation retires, the electronics they have stored will most likely enter the waste stream, increasing the problem.(12) As the telecommunications industry changes from analogue to digital, high-definition television and audio standards, consumers will be forced to buy new equipment, and will need a way to dispose of their old equipment.(5)

Current U.S. law classifies used computers and other electronic equipment as hazardous waste, but only in large quantities. Individual consumers and small businesses may dispose of electronic waste as if it were regular trash. States can establish their own regulations, and several have, but large quantities of electronic waste still end up in landfills or incinerators.

Most electronic waste, however, is probably in storage, since many consumers are not sure how to dispose of it. Programs to reuse or recycle old computers (either through the manufacturer, retailers, charities or at a recycling business) are more common than they were, but are still not available in most places. In addition, there are no regulatory standards for such recycling businesses, and some of them may operate in environmentally harmful ways, including using prison labor and shipping waste overseas.(10)

What Is Being Done About Electronic Waste?

The European Union countries and Japan have established programs of extended producer responsibility, where manufacturers and retailers have to provide for the collection and recycling of their products.(13) Domestically, several manufacturers, including HP, IBM, and Dell, have begun voluntary programs to take back used equipment.(14)(15)(16) There are also non-profit programs in some communities that will refurbish and reuse old electronic products. Some municipalities have organized one time collection events, which have been very popular. The National Electronics Product Stewardship Initiative(17) has brought together a diverse group of stakeholders, including manufacturers and retailers, to propose a national system for dealing with electronic waste. At the state level, two states have banned the disposal of CRTs in landfills (Massachusetts and California), and several states are considering legislation that would establish some form of electronics recycling program. Introduced state legislation encompasses a wide variety of approaches to e-waste management including:

• Requiring greater manufacturer responsibility
• Prohibiting the disposal of CRTs in landfills or incinerators
• Establishing a fund to promote recycling by charging a small fee for electronic equipment
• Creating councils to review e-waste issues and create solutions
• Offering tax credits and/or grants to individuals and corporations striving to reduce e-waste
• Redefining and updating the definitions and terms of waste legislative language
• Regulating the use of hazardous substances and/or encouraging the use of recycled material in computer manufacturing

Please visit SERC’s Electronic Waste State Activity page for a detailed look at state e-waste legislation, both introduced and enacted, from across the country.

The sample legislation presented here aims for a long term solution by requiring producers to develop programs to deal with their obsolete products. It also bans the landfilling or incineration of electronic waste. This approach is very similar to the one used by the European Union.

Is There Public Support To Do Something About Electronic Waste?

Yes. In Ohio, for example, the Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District collected 161 tons of old computers at two events in April and August of 2001. The events were so popular that the district is now planning recycling drives for old televisions and other electronic equipment. In Rhode Island, the state’s Resource Recovery Corporation sponsored drop-off collections on two back-to-back Saturdays, in which 87 tons of unwanted computers were collected. Thousands of the state’s residents waited up to an hour in wintry weather to recycle computers. Rhode Island officials were so impressed by the turnout that they began a permanent program, with collections at a central location on the last Saturday of every month. A survey of Massachusetts residents showed that almost 80% of those surveyed said they were willing to pay a small fee in order to recycle a TV or computer.(12)

Key Elements of Electronic Waste Legislation

(Many thanks to the Computer Take Back Campaign for providing the following material)

1. Definition. Effective legislation must define “electronic equipment” sufficiently broad to embrace legacy waste (old TVs, computers, etc.) and anticipate new gadgetry likely to come on the market; definition of electronic equipment should include anything with a circuit board, complex circuitry, signal processing, or that contains one or more hazardous substances.

2. Producer Responsibility. Effective legislation must require development and implementation of a system of brand owner/producer financial responsibility for equipment currently entering the marketplace. Legislation should include a non-specific requirement that brand owners, producers and distributors, or a consortium of brand owners, develop an approved system for financing the environmentally superior collection and recycling of discarded electronic equipment, with applicable rates and dates, and leave the specific details to be developed by affected companies.

3. Performance Measures. Effective legislation must set performance measures and time tables for meeting these goals. Performance could be measured in one of several ways, including:

• collection, recovery and recycling of a percentage of the brand owners products;
• collection, recovery and recycling of an amount per person based on the population of the state in question (e.g., 4 kilograms per person per year);
• a level of service and convenience, measured by a required number of drop-off or collection locations per unit of population.

4. Comprehensive Scope. Effective legislation would frame a system for e-waste collection and recycling that applies to all brand owners regardless of sales channels, and to all end users.

5. Legacy Waste. Effective legislation must also create and finance a system of brand owner/producer responsibility for our stockpiles of so-called “legacy waste,” electronic equipment sold and discarded prior to the effective date of the legislation. Financing for such a system should be based on market share or other means of allocation across the industry.

6. No Taxpayer Liability. Effective legislation must ensure that government and taxpayers are held harmless from all costs associated with collection, handling, transportation, storage, recycling, and disposal of discarded electronics, as well as oversight and enforcement of systems established to handle these products.

7. Disposal Bans. Effective legislation must ban electronic equipment from landfills and incinerators. Landfill bans have been put in place by a handful of states but are not, by themselves, an effective solution to the problem.

8. Toxics Reduction. Effective legislation must phase out specific hazardous materials from the manufacture of electronic equipment, including but not limited to lead, mercury, polyvinyl chloride, and brominated flame retardants.

9. Labeling. Effective legislation must require labeling of electronic equipment containing hazardous materials. Legislation should also require labeling or information provided to consumers about the system for managing discarded products.

10. Responsible Recycling. Effective legislation should establish verifiable performance standards for electronics recyclers, including reporting and penalties for violations, worker health and safety and other criteria, to ensure that materials are managed in an environmentally superior manner.

11. Procurement. Effective legislation should establish procurement requirements for public agencies’ information technology purchases, relating to product specifications and end of life product management.

12. No Waste Export. Effective legislation should, to the extent possible, prohibit export to non-OECD countries of non working CRTs and CRT glass waste for any reason.

13. Governance and Enforcement. Effective legislation must include means for ensuring compliance and enforcement. Legislation should require specific periodic reporting by producers selling within the state, as well as public availability of all such reports. Legislation could require a multi-stakeholder advisory board to review these reports and make additional recommendations. Legislation could prohibit sales within the state, or sales to state agencies and units of government, for failure to abide by the terms of the legislation.

Additional elements:

14. Economic Development. Effective legislation could harness the economic power of recycling and reuse industries by establishing preferences/incentives for local economic development and job creation through electronics recycling.

15. Recycled Content. Effective legislation should close the electronics recycling loop by requiring recycled content standards for materials used in electronic equipment.

16. No prison labor.

Sources:
(1) “Why Focus on Computers?” Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition: Clean Computer Campaign. Page last modified on 7/30/03. 30 July 2003 <http://www.svtc.org/cleancc/focus.htm>.
(2) “Electronic Recycling & Environmental Disposal.” Regional Computer Recycling & Recovery - Rochester, NY. 30 July 2003 <http://www.rochestercomputer.com/regionalcomputerrecycling/Recycling_Home.htm>.
(3) “Frequently asked Questions about Electronics & The Environment.” Earth 911. 30 July 2003 <http://www.earth911.org/master.asp?s=lib&a=electronics/elec_faq.asp>.
(4) “Material Safety Data Sheet: Lead Oxide.” ESPI - High Purity Metal Specialists. 30 July 2003 <http://www.espimetals.com/msds%27s/leadoxide.pdf>.
(5) Scanlon, Keirsten. “Poison PCs and Toxic TVs.” Californian's Against Waste. 30 July 2003 <http://www.cawrecycles.org/Ewaste/PPCs%20and%20TTVs/ppc-ttv.pdf>.
(6) Townsend, Timothy G., Stephen Musson, and Yong-Chul Jang. “Investigation of TCLP Leachability of Leaded CRT Glass.” University of Florida, Department of Environmental Engineering Sciences, Solid and Hazardous Waste Studies. 30 July 2003 <http://www.enveng.ufl.edu/homepp/townsend/Research/CRT/CRTMain.html>.
(7) “ Computers and Monitors.” The Center for a New American Dream. 30 July 2003 <http://www.newdream.org/procure/products/computers.html>.
(8) “Massachusetts Chemical Fact Sheets, 2000.” Toxics Use Reduction Institute. 30 July 2003 <http://www.turi.org/publications/pub_factsheet.htm#ChemicalFactsheets>.
(9) Katers, Rebecca Leighton. “Human Health Risks from PCBs.” Fox River Watch. 30 July 2003 <http://www.foxriverwatch.com/human_health_pcb.html>.
(10) The Basel Action Network and Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition. “Exporting Harm: The High-Tech Trashing of Asia.” 25 February 2002. 30 July 2003 <http://www.svtc.org/cleancc/pubs/technotrash.pdf>.
(11) U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “Electronics: A New Opportunity for Waste Prevention, Reuse, and Recycling.” June 2001. 30 July 2003 <http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/osw/elec_fs.pdf>.
(12) Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Municipal and Industrial Solid Waste Division’s Jobs Through Recycling Program. “Electronics Re-Use and Recycling Infrastructure Development in Massachusetts.” September 2000. 30 July 2003 <http://www.epa.gov/NE/assistance/solid/jtrfinal00.pdf>.
(13) McCarthy, James E. Congressional Research Service. “Recycling Computers and Electronic Equipment: Legislative and Regulatory Approaches for ‘E-Waste’.” 19 July 2002. Grassroots Recycling Network. 30 July 2003 <http://www.grrn.org/e-scrap/congressional_research_service_7-02.pdf>.
(14) “Product Recycling Programs.” IBM. 30 July 2003 <http://www.ibm.com/ibm/environment/products/ptb_us.shtml>.
(15) “Hardware Recycling Services - US.” Hewlett-Packard Company. 30 July 2003 <https://warp1.external.hp.com/recycle/>.
(16) “Dell Recycling.” Dell Computer Corporation. 30 July 2003 <http://www.dell.com/us/en/dhs/topics/segtopic_dell_recycling.htm>.
(17) “National Electronics Product Stewardship Initiative (NEPSI).” University of Tennessee. Center for Clean Products and Clean Technology. Energy, Environment and Resources Center. 30 July 2003 <http://eerc.ra.utk.edu/clean/nepsi/index.htm>.