Electronic Waste: A New Industry for a Growing Problem
Panelists:
Jeff Hunt, Supervisor, California Integrated Waste Management Board
Bill Shireman, President and CEO, The Future 500
David Thompson, Director, Corporate Environmental Department, Panasonic Corporation of North America
Moderator:
John Shegerian, Managing Partner, President and CEO, Electronic Recyclers LLC
The environment has been getting a lot of media attention lately. No discussion of the environment over the past few weeks is complete without the waving around of the Vanity Fair "green" issue as a symbol that the environmental crisis has hit the media and so the Electronic Waste panel began with that and with the stern words from moderator John Shegarian that the "electronic waste crisis is upon us." The facts are dire. There are ten million new pounds of electronic waste each month just in California. "We are at a tipping point at the moment of truth," said Shegarian. It is a popular topic but discussion on what works and what doesn't hasn't really hit the media. Electronic waste is a global problem and is full of hazardous elements like lead, mercury, arsenic, and chromium and becomes a health issue. In countries like Vietnam and India children are harvesting the precious metals from electronic waste.Jeff Hunt: California's electronic waste management program
California has the only electronic waste recycling program, SP20 which charges fees for televisions, monitors, etc. The program kept 70 million pounds out of landfills last year due to this program and it could be double that this year. In 2007 no device can be sold in California that can't be sold in the European Union (which has a new program regulating dangerous metals). One problem with SP20 is how to document where electronic waste comes from. Electronic waste has a global flow and no other state has the same restrictions that California does.
David Thompson: Panasonic's view of the problem
In Japan, the consumer is responsible for returning the products but the manufacturer is responsible for the recycling. Panasonic recycles 3 million TVs per year in Japan through their recycling plant but they also work with recycling plants around Japan. The EU requirements won't necessarily change the way manufacturers work in the US (although Panasonic has made all their products EU-compliant). There are roughly 30 million televisions sold in the U.S. each year.
Bill Shireman: Applying the bottle bill philosophy to electronic waste
Does the model of bottle bill laws work for electronic waste? Future 500 is a non-profit that forges alliances between Fortune 500 companies and environmentally-friendly groups like Greenpeace and the Sierra Club. The bottle bills make it profitable for consumers to recycle and have been widely successful. SP20 is a model law for other states but the system needs to be easier for consumers and should include personal computers.
Is there a manufacturing way out of the electronic waste crisis?
David Thompson speaks on what Panasonic has done. There is now lead-free soldering equipment. They have replaced lead with tin, silver and gold which are also problematic because of the mining techniques.
Maine adopted legislation that started at the beginning of 2006. Individual towns are responsible for collecting the electronic waste and delivering them to consolidated recycling areas. Manufacturers are liable for the cost of delivering the products to consolidators. David Thompson from Panasonic says this legislation is problematic because it uses a percentage system and therefore newer manufacturers will have a smaller burden. The Maine program might not work in a larger state.
Will consumers be willing to pay a nationwide advanced recycling fee for electronic waste? Electronic waste from businesses (which often use lease programs) is different than recycling from households. Most consumers aren't aware of electronic waste as a big problem because they may only have one or two TVs or cell phones.
Doug Smith of Sony said that Sony has recycled 350 million pounds of electronic waste last year. They used a mail-back recycling system which has not worked well. He believes that "programs that ignores collection and transportation costs are just smoke and mirrors."
How is electronic waste handled? The Panasonic program in Japan uses a manual disassembly program. The basic system for dealing with electronic waste involves separating out the various elements, cleaning, crushing the glass and hermetically sealing the remains.
What to do about China which will have a huge electronic waste problem? China is already a partner in the California system. The Chinese government is interested in recycling facilities to address the problem. Handling the electronic waste crisis as a global problem is the only way to create a global solution and making recycling of the electronic waste a profitable industry is part of that solution.
