Informational purposes only: From the Texas Campaign for Enviroment

According to the Texas Campaign for Enviroment, A new policy is gaining popularity because of its environmental gains and cost savings for local governments.

It’s called Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) or producer takeback recycling for short. Producer takeback recycling offers a long-term solution as it makes the producers assume the financial responsibility of recycling and disposal. Having manufacturers take back their product results in less consumption of material, better product design, less hazardous materials, safer recycling systems, and cost savings to governments who would normally have to foot the bill.

According to their report, North Americans throw out more garbage than any other people on earth, and the costs of trash disposal or recycling fall entirely on local governments or the individual household. Local governments must currently spend an estimated $43.5 billion per year managing product waste. These costs are only going up -- the tonnage of product waste landfilled and incinerated has grown by 19.2 million tons since 1980.

What goes out in our trash cans is changing, becoming more toxic and hazardous. Electronic waste or e-waste (old TVs, computers, etc) is laden with lead, mercury and other heavy metals, represents the fastest growing waste stream in the country. Yet since municipalities have no control over the toxics used in products or the recyclability of the solid waste they collect, they have no control over these solid waste management costs. The costs of disposal are hidden from the consumer because they show up only in their tax bill or disposal contract. This system therefore results in providing a hidden public subsidy (the local taxes that pay for waste management). In effect, local governments and taxpayers subsidize the bad design practices of some product manufacturers, resulting in an “unfunded mandate” imposed on local government by manufacturers.

Producer takeback laws require electronics manufacturers to pay for the collection, transportation, and recycling of e-waste from consumers, small business, schools, and local governments. Producer takeback recycling ends the existing system of local taxpayers subsidizing waste, shifting the cost of waste management from governments to producers. Producers have the control over design and should be responsible for the solutions. By making the producer physically and/or financially responsible for their end of life products, there is a market-based incentive to start designing for reuse, recycling and with safer materials.

Local governments should urge Texas & U.S. lawmakers to pass
producer takeback recycling legislation!

Many local governments have household hazardous waste collection systems in place that provides citizens locations to drop off computers and cell phones. While this is a good initiative, the strain on city and county budgets to properly dispose of all the computers and other electronic devices would be enormous: Texas taxpayers will foot a $606 million tax bill over ten years if companies don't take back obsolete products4. Should local governments and taxpayers really get stuck holding the bag for the costs of toxic electronic trash?

Electronic Waste Costs Our Environment

The lack of design for recycling and an effective financing mechanism for e-waste recycling and disposal has resulted in illegal dumping of e-waste in the U.S. and abroad. In December 2003, electronic waste (probably bought at auctions) that once belonged to various Texas state environmental agencies and a local school district were found in an illegal dumpsite in Travis County. Even more shocking is that 50-80% of the e-waste taken to U.S. “recyclers” is actually being shipped illegally to developing countries such as China, India, Nigeria and others. Investigations have uncovered crude scrap operations that poison the community’s water and cause grave health problems. The recent exposé in Nigeria even found e-waste that once belonged to the City of Houston and City of San Antonio5. (The City of San Antonio will now require its vendors to take back its obsolete IT equipment.)

Producer Takeback Recycling for Electronics is Now Standard Practice in Many Places

In contrast, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and the European Union have passed comprehensive producer takeback recycling legislation for both electronic and electrical equipment waste. These laws require that producers handle their waste by closing the feedback loop between front-end design decisions and end-of-life problems—thus promoting a greater incentive for greener design. The State of Maine passed the first producer takeback recycling legislation for some e-waste in 2004, the State of Washington followed in March 2006. E-waste bills are pending in nineteen other states and New York City.

There are no Texas laws banning e-waste from landfills. Obsolete electronics already make up an estimated 70% of the heavy metals in our garbage dumps – which are often located near water sources6. Unless action is taken, we’ll be paying a hefty price in our taxes, our environment, and our health. Local governments in Washington State, Massachusetts, California and other states have taken the lead in advocating for producer takeback recycling.

Local Resolution Would Put City on Record for Producer TakeBack Recycling of E-waste

Local governments can take the lead in Texas and pass a resolution urging our state and federal lawmakers to require electronics producers give American consumers equivalent recycling services and take this burden off local governments. This will send a signal that Texas cities and towns want the ingenuity of the high tech sector to be directed to solving the e-waste crisis – and the jobs that will come from a robust e-waste recycling infrastructure.