Group items tagged

The Goodwill on 8th Ave. and 65th has been especially busy today, accepting electronics along with its usual donations.

Mumbai, the electronic waste capital of the country, is likely to get an e-waste processing unit run on a public-private partnership model. The unit will be first of its kind in the country and the second in South East Asia, to where India now supplies its e-waste for recovery of precious metals. The core committee under the chairmanship of the state Environment Secretary along with members of Solid Waste Management (SWM) cell of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB), decided that a techno-economic feasibility study should be carried out for full-fledged processing of e-waste generated in the region. "The committee decided that a techno-economic feasibility study should be initiated. The concept is to have a comprehensive process to recover precious as well as non-precious metals safely," said Ashwini Bhide, Joint Metropolitan Commissioner, MMRDA. The processing unit will be located in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.

The Washington bill is what other states wanted,'' said Scott Cassel, executive of the Product Stewardship Institute. Requiring manufacturers to cover the collection and recycling costs will encourage them to design greener products that are less toxic and easier to recycle, he said. ``Here is a state that took a careful, methodical and comprehensive approach and considered various options,'' Cassel said. ``Now state residents will have an electronics recycling system that will become the gold standard for the country.'' A wide and diverse group backed the bill, which also had bipartisan support. Computer maker Hewlett-Packard Co., Seattle electronics recycler Total Reclaim Inc., and retailers Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Amazon.com supported the bill. But the bill was far from receiving unanimous backing from electronics manufacturers. The Electronic Industries Alliance communicated its concerns with Washington's legislation. The group, along with 18 of its member companies, such as Dell Inc., IBM Corp. and Apple Computer Inc., did not support the bill. The law does not implement a shared responsibility approach. But rather, it extends the manufacturers' responsibility to finance the end of the life of their products, according to the EIA's remarks to the Washington Legislature. Such a system is inefficient, the group said, and will result in increased costs for Washington consumers.

``The Washington bill is what other states wanted,'' said Scott Cassel, executive of the Product Stewardship Institute. Requiring manufacturers to cover the collection and recycling costs will encourage them to design greener products that are less toxic and easier to recycle, he said. ``Here is a state that took a careful, methodical and comprehensive approach and considered various options,'' Cassel said. ``Now state residents will have an electronics recycling system that will become the gold standard for the country.'' A wide and diverse group backed the bill, which also had bipartisan support. Computer maker Hewlett-Packard Co., Seattle electronics recycler Total Reclaim Inc., and retailers Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Amazon.com supported the bill. But the bill was far from receiving unanimous backing from electronics manufacturers. The Electronic Industries Alliance communicated its concerns with Washington's legislation. The group, along with 18 of its member companies, such as Dell Inc., IBM Corp. and Apple Computer Inc., did not support the bill. The law does not implement a shared responsibility approach. But rather, it extends the manufacturers' responsibility to finance the end of the life of their products, according to the EIA's remarks to the Washington Legislature. Such a system is inefficient, the group said, and will result in increased costs for Washington consumers.

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which is making an effort to be greener in 2009 , officially kicks off this morning - and already the eco-announcements are piling up. Electronics makers are claiming their hardware is more energy efficient than the next, manufacturers are launching recycling programs, and devices that just make your life easier (such as navigation services) are being painted as green.