States Need to 'Legalize' Electronics Recycling

By Michele Raymond

With so much attention on electronics recycling this year, it is clear that manufacturers will have to take some sort of national action to avert potential state recycling mandates.

Even though the players are now at the table (several, actually) with government and activists attempting to hammer out some new solutions, they need to pay attention to what could be a major hitch in anyone’s recycling plans: in most states, it’s still not legal to recycle electronics with hazardous parts.

In the early 1990’s, battery makers learned this lesson the hard way. When nine states passed laws requiring manufacturers to recover nickel-cadmium (Ni-Cd) batteries, they decided to create a national takeback program. Retailers would provide the collection points for the program. According to the law, however, if retailers accumulated over a very small number of batteries (waiting to be picked up for recycling), they were considered “hazardous waste” generators, resulting in a major regulatory burden. And, no recycling was allowed!

To resolve this problem, the industry worked with EPA to enact the “Universal Waste Rule” (UWR). It more or less exempts batteries and pesticides from hazardous waste rules if they are destined for recycling. Then the industry had to lobby to get each state to enact its own UWR. It was not until Congress enacted the national batteries law in 1996 that industry could move forward with the total national program.

Today, many electronics components contain heavy metals which is one reason activists want them recycled. Most notably, each cathode ray tube (CRT) contains several pounds of lead. Only four states have added CRT’s or electronics to their UWR or have clarified that CRT’s are NOT hazardous waste! This means if you collect too many TV’s or monitors, under federal law you must ship them out, fully manifested, to a hazardous waste landfill.

Even though EPA has published its draft rules that clarify an exemption for CRT’s, all states must adopt these rules. Meanwhile, no business will want to collect much electronics waste for fear of becoming a “small quantity generator” of hazardous waste. Most states are not enforcing the current law. However, big name manufacturers cannot set up a national recycling program until this ambiguity is cleared up.

Meanwhile, state lawmakers have been busy this session, introducing 20 bills that address electronics waste in some way some call for industry to fund take-back of their products. While only two bills passed, the number introduced more than doubled from last year. This doesn’t count the 44 mercury restriction bills, many of which affect electronics.

PR or Real Solutions?
Although manufacturers are doing very well with their commercial takeback programs, it’s not clear whether consumer programs are more PR than solution. The manufacturers who have bravely started their own consumer take-back programs deserve credit but the press they have received outweighs the volumes of computers they have recovered. IBM, for example, reclaims only about 200 units per month with its $29.99 program.

It was apparent to me after listening to government case studies at the EPR2 conference in 1999, that most consumers won’t pay to see their old computer or other electronics recycled. Most local government people I have talked with agree.

But electronics recycling will probably never be “free.” Somebody’s got to pay. And history has shown that consumers don’t want to see taxes raised.

Given the difficult and complex political realities, it is apparent there is no simple, low cost solution to the electronics waste issue in the U.S. In the short term, the best industry can do is push hard to clarify the legal status of electronics recycling in the states as quickly as possible.

Because as good as the PR is over “voluntary” programs, the reality is that there will never be an effective electronics recycling system without the full cooperation of small businesses, governments, and consumers. You have to crawl before you can walk and you can’t even walk if what you want to do is not technically legal. (Just ask the battery makers!)

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Michele Raymond