Move to tighten US e-waste exports

USA – The Responsible Electronics Recycling Act, introduced in the House of Representatives and now before the US Congress, would create a new category of restricted electronic waste that cannot be exported to developing countries.

It would allow the US Environmental Protection Agency to set limits for small amounts of hazardous materials to be included in e-waste exports. Exemptions from the export ban would include products being returned under warranty for repair and products being recalled.
The bill aims to stop US companies from exporting old electronics to countries where they are broken apart or burned by workers using few safety precautions, according to Gene Green, a Texas Democrat and the bill’s co-sponsor. The bill is also supported by environmental groups and electronics manufacturers, including Hewlett-Packard (HP), Dell, Apple and Best Buy. The new export rules are ‘the right thing to do’, Ashley Watson, HP’s Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer, is quoted as saying.

Opposition
However, the US Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) says the bill would hurt developing nations by shutting down their ‘nascent efforts to develop safe and responsible recycling infrastructures; would harm efforts to build local economies and markets; and would stop the exchange of recycling technology and best management practices.’
Eric Harris, ISRI’s Associate Counsel and Director of International and Government Relations, says: ‘Illegal polluters anywhere in the world – in developed and developing countries – should be put out of business. What some policy-makers fail to understand is that most of the used electronics being generated and recycled in developing countries originate in that country, not from US exports. For that very reason, stopping the export of end-of-life electronics from the United States will do nothing to solve the underlying problem of bad actors polluting the environment and instead will block positive efforts currently being undertaken by the US recycling industry to promote and support developing countries in their efforts to build environmentally responsible and sustainable economies.’