Group items tagged

"Discarded electronic products and components - or e-waste, as they are collectively known - can represent either a major environmental dilemma or a massive potential economic windfall. If treated properly, much e-waste may be reclaimed or recycled for future use and converted into a significant new revenue stream. Improperly treated e-waste, on the other hand, poses a massive threat to the world's ecosystem and can result in contamination to the soil, air, and water, while also exposing workers, nearby residents, and wildlife to a multitude of health hazards. This study forecasts that the worldwide market for e-waste recovery will grow from $5.7 billion in 2009 to nearly $14.7 billion by the end of 2014, representing a CAGR of 20.8% over the forecast period. This figure represents money generated through reclamation of valuable materials from e-scrap."

Answering questions about both e-waste disposal and recycling involves a host of challenges. For example, little information is available to allow a complete assessment of how e-waste ultimately managed. General estimates have been made about the management of cathode ray tubes (CRTs, the only devices where disposal is federally regulated), but little reliable information is available regarding other categories of e-waste. Further, little information is available regarding the total amount of functioning electronics exported to developing countries for legitimate reuse. What is known is that e-waste recycling involves complex processes and it is more costly to recycle e-waste in the United States, where there is a limited recycling infrastructure. It also is known that most consumer electronics manufacturers (who provide the market for material recovery from recycled electronics) have moved overseas.

Add Interim Project Group

Beijing Review article by Ding Wenlei, 7/9/09. "In the eight years after Guiyu became a collection point for electronic waste, Greenpeace China and other green organizations have not stopped urging major waste exporters to cease shipping their detritus to China. At the same time, they have been lobbying the Chinese Government to crack down more effectively on illegal electronic waste recycling. China finally has its own regulation on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE)-the Regulation on the Administration of the Recovery and Disposal of Waste Electrical and Electronic Products. Announced on February 25, the regulation will hold producers liable for the costs of managing their products at the end of their lifecycles as of January 1, 2011. According to the regulation, China will license large qualified recycling plants and develop a recycling economy to better safeguard the environment and human health. Yet, for environmental organizations, the Chinese Government and licensed recycling plants, it remains an uphill battle to smash the business chain of the illegal recycling of electronic waste."

The WEEE Forum's set of remarks on the European Commission's Proposal for a recast of Directive 2002/96/EC on WEEE 24 April 2009. "In this paper, the WEEE Forum seeks to contribute, by providing both expert views and facts and figures, to the discussion on the recast of the Directive. The focus of this issue paper is the newly proposed collection targets and the requirement on member states to finance at least the costs of collection from collection facilities and the treatment, disposal and recovery of WEEE, and to encourage producers to take full ownership of the WEEE collection, in particular by financing the collection of WEEE throughout the whole waste chain including from private households."

New and pending regulations requiring product take-back by manufacturers at the time of disposal are intended to create a new era of industrial ecology and environmental sustainability. However, the intended benefits of the current legislation can be confounded by obsolescence in product design based upon advances in science and technology and also by the introduction of more environmentally benign product designs.

American Plastics Council paper presented at Society of Plastics Engineers Annual Recycling Conference, November 2000; authors Michael M. Fisher, American Plastics Council, Michael B. Biddle, MBA Polymers, Inc., Tony Hainault, Minnesota Office of Environmental Assistance, Douglas S. Smith, Sony Electronics Inc., David J. Cauchi, Consultant, David A. Thompson, Matsushita Electric Corporation of America