Jessica Baker

April 2, 2011

Starting in January 2011 Vermont's new electronic waste recycling law took effect. Electronic waste or e-waste is a term used to describe discarded electronic devices such as TVs, computers, cell phones, and printers. These electrical items contain lead, mercury, chromium and other hazardous materials which pose a threat to human health and the environment if disposed of improperly. The new Vermont law will ban the disposal of all e-waste from landfills, and require e-waste items to be discarded at designated recycling locations.

Prior to the law, e-waste was typically burned or dumped in landfills. When burned or buried e-waste releases toxins, such as halogenated dioxins and furans into the air, soil, and water. These toxins can cause cancer, reproductive disorders, and many other health problems. Additionally, most of the items will never break down, and just continue to accumulate. This is a problem since e-waste continues to grow 8% every year, as new products keep inundating the market.

While the Vermont law is a step in the right direction of ridding Vermont of the harmful chemicals from e-waste, what do the recycling centers actually do with the discarded electronic items? Unfortunately, the answer is that a majority of recycling centers ships the e-waste items to developing countries or other locations within the U.S. With regards to e-waste the term "recycled" is used loosely, "Even when we take [old electronics] to a recycling center it's usually not actually recycled – not in the way most of us think of that term." Around 70-80% of the e-waste in the United States is sent to underdeveloped countries that still use dangerous techniques such as open air burning and riverside acid baths to extract the precious metals including copper, iron, silicon, nickel and gold from e-waste. Whatever is left over after the extraction process is then usually dumped, creating mounds of accumulated electronic garbage that spans for miles.

At this time Vermont does not have an electronic recycling center that is certified by the non-profit group E-Stewards. The E-Stewards Certification program certifies electronic recyclers, refurbishers and processors who dispose of electronics in an environmentally responsible way, while maintaining worker protection. The program is the worldwide leader in assisting facilities to adhere to the highest environmental standards which includes minimizing exposure of workers to hazardous chemicals, requires full compliance with existing international treaties for exporting and importing electronics, and prohibits the use of prison labor in the recycling of toxic electronics. The new Vermont law does not require recycling facilities to meet these strict standards. It allows instate facilities to ship the e-waste to other states as long as the shipment does not violate the receiving state's laws and regulations, and also allows shipment to foreign destinations in accordance with federal e-waste laws. Currently, federal law is insufficient to control e-waste exports and lacks enforcement. Because federal law is inadequate to control e-waste exports, it is very likely that—although it will be effective at clearing up local hazard waste—Vermont's e-waste law is in effect not recycling, but rather displacing it to another country or State.

Sources :

Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 10, § 7552 (2010)

Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 10, § 7559(7) (2010)

Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 10, § 6621a. (2010)

E-Stewards: The Globally Responsible Way to Recycle Your Electronics, e-Stewards.org, http://e-stewards.org/ (last visited Mar. 25, 2011).

Vermont E-Waste Recycling Program, Vermont.Gov, http://www.anr.state.vt.us/dec/e-waste/index.htm (last visited Mar. 30, 2011).

What's in Electronic Devices?, Greenpeace Int'l (2011), http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/toxics/electronics/the-e-waste-problem/what-s-in-electronic-devices/.