By: Breck Norment, Staff Member
Electronics
manufacturers continue to make impressive strides in the development of
technology.[1] Light-weight and thin flat screen
television models have begun to completely replace the traditional and obsolete
“tube-style” television. Cell
phone companies indirectly encourage consumers to buy new cell phones through
incentives such as upgrades in return for continued loyalty with a particular
carrier.
Consumers
focus their attention on acquiring these new electronics, but likely spend
little time considering how to properly dispose of their old equipment. Thus, a new environmental and natural
resource problem is spawned:
Electronic waste, or E-Waste.[2] Used consumer electronics are
overcrowding landfills and “represent the fastest growing segment of local
solid waste in our country.”[3] Foreign countries without the capacity
to safely handle the problem also bear the burden as they receive tons of used
electronic waste from the United States.[4]
Electronic
waste is not only harmful to the environment, but is also a waste of “valuable
materials, such as precious metals and rare earth minerals, which can be
recycled.”[5] For example, “for every one million
cell phones recycled, 75 pounds of gold, 772 pounds of silver, 33 pounds of
palladium, and more than 35,000 pounds of copper can be recovered.”[6] These statistics and the sheer amount
of used electronic waste in landfills leads to the need to recycle the valuable
natural resources found in these discarded products. “Recycling these components conserves materials, prevents
air and water pollution, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions that occur during
extraction, manufacturing and processing.”[7]
The
federal government has not yet mandated that E-Waste be recycled, despite
several attempts to pass a federal law.[8] At least 65 percent of the states,
however, have either already passed E-Waste legislation or have at least
considered such legislation in 2011.[9] Perhaps the most logical approach has
been taken by almost all of the states:
requiring manufacturers to foot the bill for recycling the electronics
(the Producer Responsibility Approach).[10] Although a federal law is not on the
books yet, the Responsible Electronics Recycling Act of 2011 “has been
introduced in both the House and Senate.”[11] The states without current E-Waste laws
should strive to pass such legislation, and the federal government should
continue to work at establishing nationwide standards that will increase the
recycling and conservation of these valuable materials found in used
electronics while decreasing the harmful effects that used electronics have on
the environment and our health.[12]
[1] California
Department of Toxic Substances Control, Electronic
Hazardous Waste (E-Waste), 2007, http://www.dtsc.ca.gov/hazardouswaste/ewaste/.
[2] Environment
News Service, Obama’s New E-Waste Task
Force Spurs Recovery of Metals, Minerals, Nov. 16, 2010, http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/nov2010/2010-11-16-092.html.
[3] Id.
[4] Id.
[5] Id.
[6] Id.
[7] Id.
[8] U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Wastes – Resource Conservation – Common
Wastes & Materials – eCycling, Nov.
2, 2011, http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/materials/ecycling/rules.htm.
[9] Electronics
Take Back Coalition, States are Passing
E-Waste Legislation, http://www.electronicstakeback.com/promote-good-laws/state-legislation/.
[10] Id.
[11] Olga
Khazan, Boosted by regulations, a small
business opens its own lobby shop, The
Washington Post, Feb. 13, 2012, http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/on-small-business/boosted-by-regulations-a-small-business-opens-its-own-lobby-shop/2012/02/09/gIQAxoaR2Q_story.html.
[12] See fn. 2, supra.
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