Luis Torres

November 12, 2010

There is mounting concern over the export of the least regulated waste of all – "e-waste." Many electronics companies bolster their environmentally friendly image by accepting used (legacy) electronic devices and recycling them. However, many times this takes the form of exporting the legacy devices to developing countries (usually Africa, China or India) that have neither laws nor the economic wherewithal to oversee the handling of these materials. Commonly they are dismantled for spare parts, or in extreme cases, burned or placed in acid baths to salvage scrap metal. Because there is such a market for legacy devices in developing countries, electronics manufacturers see a win-win in exporting them – they make money on selling the e-waste, and they sanitize their image among the U.S. public.

The only waste EPA regulates is cathode ray tubes (CRTs), under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, 42 U.S.C. § 6901 et seq. (RCRA). Computer monitors and television sets are familiar examples of things containing CRTs. EPA has listed CRTs as a hazardous waste under Subtitle C of RCRA, but excludes them from the hazardous definition if they are recycled. The EPA's rationale for this is to encourage recycling, which is one of RCRA's main goals (resource recovery). The flaw in this, of course, is that it is difficult to know when facilities overseas are legitimately recycling the e-waste and when the recycling is patently unsafe.

Reps. Gene Green (D-TX) and Mike Thompson (D-TX) have channeled concern over e-waste export and disposal into a bill (H.R. 6252) to sign the U.S. onto the Basel Convention, a United Nations directive that promotes more intensive international oversight of hazardous waste. The House bill comes on the heels of similar bills introduced in September of 2008 by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Rep.Greene. The bills never picked up steam, however, and were eventually dropped.

The legislation was partially in response to a 2008 report by the Government Accountability Office, which found that once a company registered with EPA to export e-waste abroad for recycling, EPA requires nothing else for Subtitle C exemption. As a result, the CRT rule had only been enforced once, even though the GAO found numerous other violations. EPA has now recommended that the U.S. join the Basel Convention, since this will greatly cut down on improper e-waste recycling, and is also researching more efficient e-waste recycling methods, which they believe will encourage more companies to adopt domestic recycling programs.

Some companies, including Dell, Apple, and Samsung, already have such programs. In addition, EPA recently announced a partnership with Staples and some manufacturers to collect e-waste, and 23 states and New York City currently have e-waste regulatory requirements stricter than the RCRA Subtitle D guidelines. However, for the most part, electronics manufacturers have been slow to follow suit on committing to domestic recycling. This is not surprising because recycling e-waste is time consuming and very expensive because it must be done manually. It is therefore no mystery why the above companies are some of the loudest voices for stricter e-waste regulation.

Sources

Landmark E-Waste Export Bill Introduced to Stop Global E-Waste Dumping, Electronics Takeback Coalition (Sept. 30, 2010), http://www.electronicstakeback.com/media/press_releases_export_bill_introduction.htm.

Senator Sherrod Brown, Brown Calls for National E-Waste Export Ban (Sept. 17, 2008), http://brown.senate.gov/newsroom/press_releases/release/?id=496c4f64-3b24-41b8-8a74-a718767bf6d7.

Stephanie Condon, Congress Eyes Restrictions on Exporting E-waste, cnet.com (Sept. 18, 2008), http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10044759-38.html.

Linda Luther, Cong. Research Serv., Managing Electronic Waste: Issues with Exporting E-waste (Sept. 27, 2010), available at http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R40850.pdf.

Automated Removal of Brominated Flame Retardant Material From a Mixed E-Waste Plastics Recycling Stream, U.S. Envtl. Prot. Ag. (last updated March 6, 2009), http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncer_abstracts/index.cfm/fuseaction/display.abstractDetail/abstract/8974/report/0.

Secretariat of the Basel Convention, Basel Conv Origins of the Basel Convention, UNEP, http://www.basel.int/convention/basics.html.

Staples, Electronics Manufacturers Pledge to Take Back E-Waste from Customers, U.S. ENVTL. PROT. AG. (last updated March 31, 2010). http://www.epa.gov/wastes/inforesources/news/2004news/01-stap.htm.