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The Government has outlined a national framework for e-waste to be developed and set in place for all industry organisations from 2011. In a meeting today [11/5/09], the Environmental Protection Heritage Council (EPHC) confirmed the national e-waste management program will be a consistent national policy regulating the disposal of electronic products in Australia including computers, monitors and TVs.

The electronics manufacturer launched a comprehensive takeback program for all of its enterprise mobility products, from laptops to walkie-talkies, as a public survey found recycling is the preferred solution to the e-waste problem.

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.

"To address the information gap on the environmental impacts of leaded and lead-free solders, EPA's DfE Program entered into a voluntary partnership with representatives of the electronics industry and other interested parties to evaluate the environmental impacts of tin-lead and lead-free solders (see the Partners page of this website for more information on project partners). The partnership used a life-cycle assessment approach to examine the impacts of tin-lead, tin-copper, tin-silver-copper, and tin-silver-copper-bismuth solders. " Site includes general project information, milestones, publications and a list of partners.

From Environmental Leader, 7/6/09. Highlights of IBM's 2008 Corporate Responsibility Report. Includes link to PDF of the report.

Illinois e-waste legislation that requires manufacturers to establish facilities to accept e-waste from consumers. The law is on a rolling basis and over the next few years the recycling requirements will kick in and by 2012, disposal of certain e-waste in municipal waste and sanitary landfills and at incinerators will be prohibited. The E-Waste Act only applies to electronic equipment taken out of use from residences, but it affects many of the businesses involved in the stream of electronic commerce. There is a civil penalty of up to $10,000 for each day of violation. Devices covered in the legislation include computers, cell phones, televisions, PDAs, printers, fax machines, game consoles, VCRs, DVD players, iPods and others (calculators and typewriters are NOT included).

As Kyocera appears to be giving up on Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) technology, Casio is getting into the game. OLED technology promises to unleash a wave of improved energy efficiency in the displays market, making televisions, mobile phones and other gizmos brighter, thinner and more innovative in their utility. One benefit is that the displays can be flexible, meaning they can be put on curved walls or other surfaces that previously did not make sense for video displays.

IBM yesterday announced the top five technologies developed under its Corporate Environmental Innovation Program in the past year, the five solutions that can have a significant impact on energy efficiency or environmental impacts. Of the top five, only three are traditional IT-related technologies, with the remaining two falling under what has become known as "Green IT 2.0," or technologies that can be applied to business operations beyond the data center or computer fleet, putting computing power to work on the firm's environmental footprint. Blog post by Matthew Wheeland, 11/11/09.

The mobile communications industry has released its Green Manifesto, setting out industry-wide goals for reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions while proposing policy recommendations for the upcoming U.S. conference in Copenhagen.

Almost four in five people around the world believe that access to the internet is a fundamental right, a poll for the BBC World Service suggests.

A furniture refinishing company has launched a new electronics recycling program to deal with waste electronics generated by furniture remodeling projects. The Refinishing Touch is an Alpharetta, Ga., company that offers on-site furniture refinishing, re-upholstery and armoire modification services to hotel chains and the federal government. Recently the company has conducted armoire modifications for several hotel chains upgrading television sets in guest rooms from CRTs to HD flat panel displays. The company is launching the new program to deal with those discarded displays. The company will guarantee TVs accepted through the program are recycled in compliance with Occupational Safety and Health Administration and EPA industry standards as well as all applicable local, state and federal laws and regulations. The company also is in the process of gaining no-landfill certification for the program. Waste & Recycling News, 1/13/10.

"The Smoldering Trash Revolt "

7/15/09. Article on Trash Track, a project of the MIT SENSEable City lab that uses microprocessors to track the movement of various types of waste through an urban waste stream for the analysis of patterns and assessment of disposal costs. Seattle, WA and NYC are pilot projects in the U.S.; tracking will also occur in London, England in the U.K.

Trash Track relies on the development of smart tags, which will be attached to different types of garbage in order to track in real time each piece of waste as it traverses the city's sanitation system. The goal of the project is to reveal the disposal process of our everyday objects and waste, as well as to highlight potential inefficiencies in today's recycling and sanitation systems. The project will be exhibited at the Architectural League in New York City and in Seattle starting September 2009. MIT SENSEable City Lab project; this is the project web site.

The real-time city is now real! The increasing deployment of sensors and hand-held electronics in recent years is allowing a new approach to the study of the built environment. The way we describe and understand cities is being radically transformed - alongside the tools we use to design them and impact on their physical structure. Studying these changes from a critical point of view and anticipating them is the goal of the SENSEable City Laboratory, a new research initiative at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The blog for MIT's SENSEable City Lab Trash Track project.

iGo, a leading provider of portable power management, has made a pledge to support and maintain the iGo Recycles program in conjunction with the Environmental Protection Agency's Plug-in to eCycling. The program is a voluntary partnership between the EPA and electronics manufacturers to offer household consumers more opportunities to donate or recycle their used electronics.

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.

7/18/09 article from The Times [of London] on the problem of illegal e-waste trade and unsafe e-waste processing in Ghana. Article contains the following statistics: "Even in the European Union, which has some of the most stringent controls, an estimated 75 per cent of e-waste is unaccounted for. Most of this, an estimated 8.5 million tonnes a year, is believed to be finding its way to unofficial dumps in West Africa."

EPA's Responsible Appliance Disposal (RAD) Program is a voluntary partnership program that began in October 2006 to help protect the ozone layer and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. As part of the RAD program, partners recover ozone-depleting chemicals from old refrigerators, freezers, air conditioners, and dehumidifiers. Using best practices, RAD partners ensure that: refrigerant is recovered and reclaimed or destroyed; foam is recovered and destroyed, or the blowing agent is recovered and reclaimed; metals, plastic, and glass are recycled; and PCBs, mercury, and used oil are recovered and properly disposed. As part of the program, EPA serves as a technical clearinghouse on responsible appliance disposal program development and implementation; calculates annual and cumulative program benefits in terms of ODS and GHG emission savings and equivalents and, as available, potential cost savings; and provides partner recognition for achievement, such as through press releases, brochures, articles, and awards. RAD partners include utilities, municipalities, retailers, manufacturers, universities, and other interested organizations.