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While electronics waste or e-waste recycling partnerships are providing significant environmental benefits by keeping waste out of landfills, they are also giving manufacturers and retailers an environmental marketing edge by providing their customers with a needed service, together with financial incentives, whether its through gift cards or charitable donations. Here are a few of the most recent partnerships aimed at providing responsible recycling programs for consumers and businesses. Environmental Leader, 7/23/09.

CEH report, Oct. 2006. In the past few years, the storm of complaints about UNICOR's recycling program from prisoners, prison guards, and others has brought these hidden sweatshops into public view. Since 1994, UNICOR has built a lucrative business that employs prisoners to recycle electronic waste (e-waste). A massive array of ewaste is largely hidden from view, as are the workers who handle the waste. Over 100,000 computers become obsolete in the U.S. every day. E-waste includes computers, personal digital assistants, TVs, and other electronic devices. E-waste is a doubleedged sword: it is rich in precious materials that can be recycled, but it also contains a cocktail of hazardous chemicals such as lead, mercury, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and cadmium. This report examines the e-waste recycling programs run by Federal Prison Industries (FPI), a government-owned corporation that does business under the trade name UNICOR.

The Center for Environmental Health (CEH) Pollution Prevention Program works to leverage the buying power of large institutions in order to expand the market for "greener" electronic products that encourages the development of a sustainable, socially responsible production system in the electronics sector. Currently the Pollution Prevention Program is focused on the health care sector, partnering with the Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) campaign, to encourage SF Bay Area hospitals and national health care organizations to adopt more environmentally preferable purchasing, management and disposal practices for their electronic equipment. CEH also provides purchasing assistance to institutions from other sectors such as government and private industry, partnering with other coalitions such as the Electronics TakeBack Coalition (ETBC). CEH integrates the resources and expertise of ETBC in electronics with the experience and knowledge of HCWH in procurement in order to influence the purchasing decisions of large institutions in healthcare, government and academia towards more environmentally responsible electronics. Contact Sue Chiang, Pollution Prevention Program Director, 510.655.3900 x311, sue[at]cehca.org or Judy Levin, Pollution Prevention Program Coordinator, 510.655.3900 x316, judy[at]cehca.org with any questions.

This portion of the Federal Facilities Environmental Stewardship & Compliance Assistance Center (FedCenter) web site provides resources related to the electronics stewardship program area. This program area addresses the life-cycle management of electronics from procurement to disposal. Links, documents, and case studies are provided for the Federal Electronics Challenge (FEC), the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT), and Energy Star. Sections include: Regulations, Guidance, and Policy; Supporting Information and Tools; Lessons Learned; Training, Presentations, and Briefings; and Conferences and Events.

Collective concern from businesses, municipalities, environmentalists and manufacturers over the hazards of e-waste has led to a search for ways to reduce its environmental impact. With a greater need for programs that handle collection and disposal of used electronics products in a way that is safest for the environment, product stewardship is emerging as a viable and cost-efficient strategy for doing so, placing the responsibility for a product's proper disposal on the shoulders of the company that makes or sells the product, or even upon the purchaser. The concept can be applied to a range of products, from paints and prescription medication to batteries and computers. Written by Carl Smith, CEO of the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation, 7/22/09.

South Korea's Samsung Electronics has said it will invest $4.3B (£2.6B) as part of an initiative to develop new energy-efficient products and halve carbon emissions from its factories by 2013. The consumer electronics giant today unveiled its Eco-Management 2013 plan, under which it will spend $2.5B on improving the energy efficiency of its products -- including TVs, refrigerators and air conditioning systems -- with a goal of delivering the highest levels of efficiency in the consumer electronics industry. Under the plan, standby power consumption on many products will also be halved from 1W to just half a watt, while the company has said it will work to identify new recyclable and organic materials that could be used in the manufacture of consumer products such as laptops and mobile phones. Meanwhile, $1.8B will be invested in halving greenhouse gas emissions from Samsung manufacturing plants. Article by Yvonne Chan, Greener Computing, 7/20/09.

Two Democratic U.S. Senators -- Amy Klobuchar of Minn. and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York -- introduced earlier this month legislation aimed at funding R&D efforts to improve to recycle e-waste and develop best practices and innovation in greener design of electronics. The Electronic Device Recycling Research and Development Act, a nearly identical version of which passed the U.S. House of Representatives in April, provides almost $85 million over the next three years to help spur the growth of electronics recycling practices in the U.S. The bill, S. 1397, includes four main initiatives: providing grants for R&D into e-waste processes and practices, funding research into environmentally friendly materials for use in electronics, establishing educational curricula for engineering students at all levels to incorporate green design practices into electronics, and publishing a report from the National Academy of Sciences laying out the good and the bad in the current state of electronics recycling.

Hewlett Packard (HP), in collaboration with the Global Digital Solidarity Fund (DSF), and the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research (Empa), has launched a groundbreaking initiative to develop sustainable recycling processes to tackle the problem of e-waste in Africa. For the past two years, the initiative has been overseeing a pilot program facility in South Africa and conducting e-waste management assessment studies in both Kenya and Morocco; the goal of the assessments is ultimately to properly determine each country's ability to deal with the e-waste there, whether it arose from electronics that were purchased new within the country and are now reaching their end of life, or from electronics that were shipped illegally from other countries. The project has been examining efforts by both African governments and organizations to safely handle e-waste. The project has been compiling extensive information, such as the policy and legal framework in each country, standard settings for e-waste treatment, organizations and programs already in place to safely process e-waste, and the actual amounts of e-waste present. MediaGlobal article by Shefali Lall, 7/20/09.

Individuals who are moving can request the service from NorthStar, a Los Angeles-based moving company. E-Cycle Environmental employees will pick up old electronics, such as computers, televisions, batteries and other devices. The Los Angeles-area based electronics recycler will recycle the items and guarantees it will not export material to developing countries.

There are images and descriptions of the E-Waste collection event

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