Feb 28 - Growing Industry Support for Federal E-Waste Export Bill
Share Support continues to grow for the Responsible Electronics Recycling Act of 2011, a bill in Congress that promotes recycling jobs at home by prohibiting U.S. recyclers from dumping electronic waste on developing countries. The bill currently has bipartisan support from 11 republicans and 8 democracts.
The bill also enjoys support from the business and recycling industry. The Coalition for American Electronics Recycling (CAER) was formed last summer to support the export bill. CAER is now comprised of 56 companies, with members involved in all aspects of the domestic electronics recycling and disposition industry. Covanta is the newest addition to the coalition, joining Waste Management, Electronic Recyclers International, Sims, Alcoa, etc.
The primary opponent to the measure is Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), the 
recycling industry's trade association, even though some of their members are supportive of the bill and are in CAER. ISRI argues that the legislation is not consistent with longstanding U.S. trade policies and agreements and that responsible recycling occurs at the facility level, not the country level, since there are good e-scrap processing facilities in developing countries. However, the legislation does allow for recycler to send to non-OECD country if they go through do prior notification, licensing and receiving country’s written consent.
In California, CAW supports AB 960 by Assembly Member Bonnie Lowenthal will help reduce the amount of e-waste exported overseas from California by mandating that recyclers reform their exporting practices in order to receive payments. This bill has been carried over from last year and is currently in Fiscal Committee.
Learn more about CAW’s efforts to support e-waste recycling. Please support our work on e-waste and make a tax-deductible donation today.