Washington State Electronic Waste Bill

HB 1942

Who Benefits?

Residents, small and large businesses, schools, charities, repair shops, cities and counties will all benefit from this legislation.

· Creates an environmentally sound solution to the problem of what to do with used electronic equipment.

· Creates a convenient, no-charge, end-of-life collection and recycling system for computers, televisions and cell phones for residents, businesses, and schools.

· Defers to the expertise of the private sector - the electronics manufacturers - to develop an efficient and effective collection and recycling system for e-waste. Encourages private sector creativity, flexibility and innovation in the design and operation of the collection and recycling system.

· Provides a regulatory framework to ensure that all manufacturers operate under the same economic conditions. Utilizes economies of scale and market forces to keep the costs of the recycling system competitive.

· Recovers the costs to run the collection and recycling system by including those costs in the final product price. No fees are charged when the consumer brings the product in for recycling.

· Does not create a government bureaucracy to manage the system and does not use government fees or taxes to fund the system.

· Provides financial incentives for manufacturers to design products that are less toxic and more recyclable.

· Provides consumers of electronic products with ethical and environmentally sound recycling solutions.

Residents

This sector has been under served due to the difficulty and high cost of handling small volumes of outdated equipment. More than 165,000 households in King County have stockpiled at least one computer. Residents in eastern Washington have stockpiled over 500,000 monitors, computers and televisions.

· Provides convenient, no-charge, end-of-life collection and recycling for small volumes of equipment.

· Removes the need to store electronic equipment and provides options that will reduce illegal dumping and illicit disposal.

· Keeps working equipment in circulation at lower prices, closing digital divide.

· Incorporates the recycling costs into the price of the product so that the consumer who benefits from the product pays for the final recycling service. The ratepayer or taxpayer is not unfairly charged for the recycling costs of a product they did not own or use.

Small Businesses

Because these businesses often have only one or two computers to recycle at a time, finding convenient, cost effective, recycling services has been a problem, expense and hassle for this sector.

· Provides convenient, no-charge, end-of-life collection and recycling.

· Removes the need to store electronic equipment and provides options that will reduce illegal dumping and illicit disposal.

Large Businesses, Schools, Agencies, City and County Government (generators of large quantities of equipment)

Producers of large quantities (7 or more at a time) of Cathode Ray Tubes – including businesses, schools and other institutions – must dispose of CRTs as Dangerous Waste or recycle per DOE Interim Enforcement Policy guidelines.

· Provides convenient, no-charge, collection and recycling for large quantities of electronic equipment.

· Standardizes the collection and recycling of electronic equipment, reducing the need for special takeback provisions in procurement contracts.

· Provides a back-up to e-waste management methods already utilized.

· Streamlines processes and record keeping.

· Seeks to reduce liability associated with practices such as export of hazardous materials to countries with inadequate environmental regulations and unsafe recycling practices.

Electronics Manufacturers

Electronics manufacturers have many opportunities to benefit from implementation of HB 1942 including decreasing production costs, increasing sales, and avoiding liability and risk.

· Allows manufacturers to develop a program that they consider most beneficial, efficient and cost effective, instead of telling them how they have to meet obligations.

· Makes use of economy of scale, market and competitive forces. Manufacturers can cooperate or compete with each other to meet obligations.

· Enhances potential business opportunities if customers are provided with superior services and develop Brand loyalty.

· Enhances business opportunities by making manufacturers more competitive in the international market, where similar requirements exist or are expected. Manufacturers can concentrate their design efforts on products that will be in demand both in the US and abroad. For example, the European Union passed similar producer responsibility legislation in November, 2002 that requires manufacturers to take back their products for recycling and to reduce the use of toxic and hazardous materials in the manufacture of electronic products. This HB 1942 follows the European model and provides manufacturers with a similar set of standards to follow.

· Enhances business opportunities by producing more environmentally friendly electronics equipment for purchase by the increasing number of state agencies and others that are required or want to buy "greener" electronic equipment.

· Decreases potential future liability resulting from clean up costs associated with the illegal disposal of hazardous products and the improper recycling of hazardous products.

· Creates the potential for establishing a collection and recycling system that could generate revenue, provide feedback about product performance and design and could create a feedstock of recyclable materials for use in new electronic products.

· Creates opportunity to decrease production costs. It has been demonstrated that designing electronic products for quick disassembly for recycling results in lowered production costs to manufacture those products to begin with. Utilizing less hazardous materials in manufacture can also decrease production costs.

· Resolves the problem in an effective, timely way, thus avoiding future activist, legislative and legal actions that could be less effective and fair.

Charities

Many of these organizations no longer take electronic equipment from their donors because much of it is unusable and cannot be resold or reused. All of the broken equipment costs the charities large sums of money to recycle.

· Provides convenient, no-charge end-of-life recycling.

· Allows charities to accept electronic goods from donors without having to pay out of their pocket to recycle goods that don't resell. Many charities have stopped accepting donations of electronic goods because of the high costs involved with recycling.

· Eliminates the problem of charities being “dumped on” with worthless equipment and the high costs of managing the equipment.

· Expands business opportunities by allowing charities to become partners in manufacturer-run collection and recycling programs. The partnerships could result in increased revenue and the expansion of core services.

· Expands business opportunities by allowing charities to take in greater quantities of electronics in order to sort out the highest value equipment for reuse and resale. A larger supply of electronic goods will be available to lower income and disadvantaged citizens, helping to close the digital divide.

· Seeks to prevent practices such as export of hazardous materials to Asian communities and other countries with inadequate environmental regulations and unsafe recycling practices that are likely in direct conflict with the charity mission.

Private Electronic Recycling Businesses

Many private electronics recyclers have been struggling with the costs of doing business domestically where the labor is more expensive and the environmental regulations are more stringent than exporting the equipment overseas. Those that have chosen to do business domestically have to charge higher prices and are at a competitive disadvantage.

· Expands business opportunities by allowing recyclers to serve as collection sites and receive payment for all the e-scrap that is collected.

· Expands business opportunities by ensuring that more recycling business stays in this country by discouraging export of e-scrap to developing countries..

· Expands business opportunities by ensuring that more recycling business stays in the private sector by limiting the use of prison labor if it results in a form of a subsidy and has the potential to undermine the private sector recycling industry.

· Expands business opportunities by ensuring that much more recyclable material is available for actual recycling rather than being discarded.

· Eliminates the problem and costs of illegal dumping at the recycling facility.

Electronics Repair Shops and Resale Shops

These shops, including TV, appliance repair and computer repair shops often get equipment from customers that can be repaired, but the cost to repair it is as expensive as buying a new product. Many customers decide to buy a new product and "leave" their equipment with the repair shop. Repair shops have to pay large sums to have the materials recycled.

· Provides, convenient, no-charge end-of-life recycling for material that can’t be fixed or resold.

· Eliminates the problem and costs of having unfixable units “abandoned” at repair shops.

· Expands business opportunities by allowing repair and resale shops to take in greater quantities of electronic equipment and utilize what can be salvaged, repaired and resold, without the fear of getting stuck with costly e-waste.

Garbage Haulers

Garbage haulers, those that collect commercial waste and residential waste, often find computers and electronic equipment in garbage cans and dumpsters. It costs them time and money to remove the equipment and have it recycled properly.

· Provides garbage customers with alternatives and removes the motivation for illicit disposal.

· Eliminates the high costs of removing banned electronics that customers have placed in the garbage.

· Expands business opportunities by allowing haulers to contract with manufacturer-run collection and recycling programs to provide electronics collection services.

Local Governments and Solid Waste Management Agencies

Many local governments own and/or operate solid waste transfer stations and garbage disposal facilities. They are the final recipients of e-waste when it is disposed. Lately they have been called upon to provide their residents and businesses with e-waste recycling services. Given the hazardous and complicated nature of e-waste, most local governments cannot afford to provide these types of services.

· Provides no-charge system for recycling and expands e-waste recycling options.

· Reduces illegal dumping and illicit disposal of electronic equipment.

· Eliminates the necessity for local governments to provide electronics collection and recycling services and reduces costs to government.

· Gives local governments the option of partnering with manufacturers to collect the equipment and get paid for providing the service.

· Reduces disposal at solid waste facilities of electronic equipment that is classified as household hazardous waste.

· Provides no-charge system for recycling the illegally dumped material, reducing government's expenses for managing these materials.

Cities, Parks, and Forest Service

These entities are experiencing illegal dumping in alleys, parks and forested lands.

· Reduces motivation for illegal dumping which is costly to these entities.

Asian Communities and Developing Nations

Many Asian countries and other nations are now receiving loads of e-waste from companies that claim to be recyclers. This “cheap and dirty solution” to the e-waste problem represents a massive, unsustainable form of trade that is currently poisoning workers and the environments of some of the poorer communities worldwide as they process this toxic waste in primitive conditions.

· Seeks management plans that discourage export of electronic wastes to foreign countries.

· Seeks to discourage shipments of hazardous electronic waste to Asia and other countries simply because they are poor. This export equates to an export of very damaging pollution and occupational disease and serves as a disincentive to establishing a viable recycling infrastructure here at home.

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