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Home / Washington Business - September/October 2006 / E-Waste: Manufacturers disagree over recycling |
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E-Waste: Manufacturers disagree over recycling |
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Written On: September/October 2006 |
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Written By: by Shawn Sullivan |
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In June, the Legislature passed SB 6428, which requires manufacturers of computers, display monitors and televisions to pay the costs of collection, transportation and recycling of their products. They must also embed the costs of these new mandates into the price of their products so those costs are invisible to consumers, and must choose either to start their own recycling program or to join a centralized program run by a newly created government agency.
The Department of Ecology has instituted a new administrative fee that electronics manufacturers must pay in order to sell their products in Washington and has mandated compulsory enrollment in an electronic waste-monitoring list.
AWB took a neutral stance on this legislation because our members had two opposing views on how to finance this new program. "As a leader in electronics recycling for more than a decade, we believe SB 6428 will drive environmental improvements of our products while keeping consumer costs to a minimum," said Larry King, manager of Hewlett-Packard’s product take-back program. "We support the producer responsibility approach established by [the bill], and we look forward to providing the people of Washington with our best-in-class product recycling services."
While the bill does not take full effect until January 1, 2009, businesses like Panasonic have concerns over the bill’s reliance on a free take-back program. "We advocated to legislators our desire for an advanced recycling fee that consumers were aware of," said David Thompson, director of the corporate environmental department for Panasonic. Thompson believes the bill will eventually drive up costs to consumers when they purchase new computers or televisions. "This bill will result in a more expensive system than others and consumers are going to pay for it," Thompson said.
Panasonic also believes that recycling costs are too high for such programs to be effective. "I am not sure I like the idea that we will invest 50 cents now to save money 15 years from now," Thompson said. This suggests that some manufacturers may not see any cost savings at all, something that concerns Panasonic a lot.
"As technology advances and recycling becomes cheaper and easier than making a new product, more and more manufacturers will begin voluntary recycling programs," Thompson said.
Such programs have already started in the electronics industry. Manufacturers of printer cartridges now choose to reuse old cartridges because of cost effectiveness. Some companies even pay consumers to send them their old cartridges.
At some point, technological advancements will make it easier for manufacturers to reuse old products instead of discarding them. No scientific data currently exists that would quantify how much of an impact this new program will have on the environment.
Panasonic does not agree with the Legislature’s assessment of the overall effectiveness of the program, while HP believes the program will have great success at creating an incentive for manufacturers to create a process that would allow them to reuse older products. Either way, manufacturers of electronic products in Washington must begin complying with portions of the bill as soon as January 2007. For more information on compliance, please visit the Department of Ecology Web site at www.ecy.wa.gov.
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