Transcript Product Stewardship Initiatives for Electronics Sego Jackson Snohomish County, WA

Product Stewardship Initiatives
for Electronics
Sego Jackson
Snohomish County, WA
PRODUCT STEWARDSHIP
A Strategy for MRW Management
Shirli Axelrod
Seattle Public Utilities
710 Second Avenue, 11th Floor
Seattle, WA 98104
phone: 206-684-7804
E-Mail: [email protected]
Why Product Stewardship?
•Reduce pollution and health dangers.
•Promote manufacturer responsibility for the
energy and materials consumption, air and water
emissions, toxic materials, worker safety threats,
and waste disposal impacts from their products.
•Producers make the decisions that most
influence those costs and impacts.
•Stewardship means they take responsibility
throughout the life of their products, from design
through the end-of-life management.
Why Product Stewardship?
Reasons for instituting product stewardship:
recapturing resources
reducing the amount of garbage
reducing waste management costs
to government and ratepayers
reducing potential harm from toxic
material exposure
We Need A New Approach
• producers need to get involved
to address the problems from
their products:
Product Stewardship
Beyond Conventional Thinking
• Traditionally,
Government
Managers accept
responsibility for
wastes and
incorporate costs
into customer
rates or taxes.
• “Life-line” becomes
“life-cycle” when
producers bear
responsibility for
their products’
impacts, and charge
buyers (not
ratepayers or
taxpayers).
New Product Cycle:
No Waste
What We Might Achieve:
• Producer responsibility for existing backlogs
of waste;
• Changes in design and manufacturing, to be
cleaner and reduce use of toxic materials;
• Manufacturers promote reuse and recycling;
• Shift costs from municipal solid waste
ratepayers into “prices” paid by producers
and users.
What’s Been Happening?
• National and international “takeback” systems
of varying levels of effectiveness (RBRC,
Thermostats, Carpet)
• National Electronics Product Stewardship
Initiative; Western Electronics Product
Stewardship Initiative
• Paint working group (NPSI)
..continued:
• Patagonia, Nike, and others commiting to
some levels of stewardship
• Medical industry groups (PVC, Mercury, etc.)
• Outside the US:
– British Columbia Product Care Association
– EU vehicle, white goods, packaging, electronics
requirements
– Japan and Australia electronics takeback
PRODUCT Stewardship Laws or
Agreements for electronics
• European Union
(proposed)
• The Netherlands
• Norway
• Sweden
• Denmark
• Switzerland
• Belgium
• Italy
• Japan
• Taiwan
• Korea
Ten Elements of Product Stewardship
Laws and Agreements for Electronics
1.
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Scope of the types of products covered.
Coverage of “historical products” and the timeframe for
implementation.
Whether and how “orphan” products are included.
Responsibility for end-of-life management, including collection.
What that responsibility entails and internalization of costs.
Whether other entities in the product chain have defined
responsibilities.
Whether the responsibility is individual or collective.
Recycling targets (rates and dates) for end-of-life management.
Environmental standards for the end-of-life management.
Design guidelines and other design-oriented programs.
National Electronics Product
Stewardship Initiative (NEPSI)
Goal of Dialogue
• The goal of the NEPSI Dialogue is the
development of a system, which includes a
viable financing mechanism, to maximize the
collection, reuse, and recycling of used
electronics, while considering appropriate
incentives to design products that facilitate
source reduction, reuse and recycling, reduce
toxicity, and increase recycled content.
Dialogue Participants
• 45 Participants
– 15 Government
– 15 Industry
– 15 Other (incl. environmental groups,
retailers, recyclers, etc.)
• Observers
• Core Group
National Electronics Product
Stewardship Initiative (NEPSI)
• Product Stewardship Institute:
Coordinates State/Local Agencies
• Electronic Industries Alliance:
Coordinates Manufacturers
• Center for Clean Products and Clean
Technologies: Coordinates Stakeholder
Dialogue
National Electronics Product
Stewardship Initiative (NEPSI)
• Government Participants (at table)
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–
–
–
CA, FL, IA, MA, MN, MO, NJ, OR, SC, WA
Snohomish County, WA
Solid Waste Management Coordinating Board, MN
Northeast Waste Management Officials Assoc.
• ME, VT, NH, NY, CT, RI (MA, NJ)
– Product Stewardship Institute
– U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• Government Observers
– NC, PA, NE, TN, WI, VA + Others
Industry Dialogue Participants
• Participants: EIA, HP, JVC, Epson,
Panasonic, Sony, Sharp, Best Buy
• Represented by EIA: IBM, Intel
• Interested: Compaq, Apple, Circuit City
• Non-participants: Gateway, Radio
Shack, Comp USA, Staples, Dell
Dialogue Objective
• Increase Collection, Reuse, and
Recycling of Used Electronics
– Performance Based
• Develop a Sustainable Financing
System to reach our targets
• Explore Opportunities for Product
Design
Agreements
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•
•
•
•
•
Meet 6 times over 1 year
Dialogue Objective
Scope of Products
Design Workshop
Ideal System Attributes
Need for Goals for Collection, Reuse,
Recycling
• Roadmap
• Narrowed Financing Options
Scope of Products
• Computer Monitors and CPUs
• Computer Peripherals
– Scanners, Printers, Keyboards, Mice
• Televisions
Status of Dialogue
• Agreed to front-end financed system
• many Subgroups
– Financing
– Infrastructure
– Regulatory Issues
– Data
– Action Plan
– Legislation
Western Electronics Product
Stewardship Initiative (WEPSI)
• Similar Issues, Regional Perspective
• Tackling Specific Challenges
– Recycler Feedback on Design
– Design for End-of-Life Assessment
Methodology
Your Company, Agency, or Organization
Can Get Involved:
• The Northwest Product Stewardship Council
(NWPSC).
• Organized in 2000 by local governments “to
integrate product stewardship principles into
the policy and economic structures of the
pacific Northwest.”
• Steering Committee of local governments.
NWPSC Organization
• Current Steering Committee members:
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–
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–
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Oregon DEQ
Washington DOE
City of Portland
City of Seattle
Clark County
Snohomish County
Kitsap County
King County
Metro
LHWMP
EPA Region 10
NWPSC Projects:
• Electronics: computer and television product
stewardship local, regional, and national
initiatives with industry.
• Medical Industry Roundtable.
• Input to state and/or national projects on
Mercury and Latex Paint.
• Provide “Policymaker Bulletins” to Oregon
and Washington officials
• www.productstewardship.net
Your Company, Agency, or Organization
Can Get Involved:
• Join the National Product Stewardship
Institute, and adopt their “Principles.”
(Information at
www.productstewardshipinstitute.org/)
• Oregon, Washington, Portland, Metro,
Seattle, Vancouver, King County,
Snohomish County, Kitsap County all
have done so.
Your Company, Agency, or Organization
Can Get Involved:
• Incorporate Product Stewardship in
Comprehensive Planning, Economic
Development, and other decisionmaking in your jurisdiction;
and
Your Company, Agency, or Organization
Can Get Involved:
• Use your agency’s buying power:
– solicit and buy environmentally-preferable
products, and
– include “vendor takeback” and environmentallysound end-of-life management by vendors in your
purchasing contracts.
(For electronics, see the “Guide to Environmentally
Preferable Purchasing” from the Northwest Product
Stewardship Council; www.productstewardship.net)