The Basel Action Network (BAN), Seattle, and its e-Stewards® recycler/refurbisher certification program say they are currently undertaking two initiatives to promote responsible electronics refurbishment.
"It is best for the environment to insist that manufacturers make products that are designed for a long life and are repairable," says BAN Executive Director Jim Puckett, "and then to create incentives for the proper collection, repair and ultimately recycling of electronic waste in all countries. In most cases, reuse and not recycling should not be the first priority for modern, repairable equipment."
The first initiative was introduced at the last Open-Ended Working Group of the Basel Convention in Geneva in September 2014. BAN says it offered an exemption that would allow some high-end electronic equipment, including medical equipment, to be exported outside of the control procedures of the Basel Convention to operators such as Asian equipment manufacturers for refurbishment. BAN says it is seeking “to break the impasse between developing countries and manufacturers” and to reach a “workable compromise to allow some small flows for very responsible refurbishment as long as the residual material from such refurbishment operations would not be allowed to remain in developing countries and violate the international Basel Ban Amendment.”
The second initiative the group is undertaking involves seeking a more liberal interpretation of when a second-hand laptop or phone battery should be considered waste. Currently, the international guidelines require a one-hour minimum charge on laptop or phone batteries. While well-intended to prevent the dumping of lithium-ion batteries, this guideline results in thousands of laptops that could otherwise find a second-life as refurbished equipment being shredded and scrapped, the organization says.
The e-Stewards Certification program, created and administered by BAN, with the help of the e-Stewards Technical Committee, will revise and implement a new set of requirements for use in its e-Stewards Standard for testing and minimum state of health for used batteries. This will allow more used batteries to be considered nonwaste and available for reuse, BAN says.
“In BAN's view, fostering greater reuse rates is compatible with ensuring that developing countries are not used as dumping grounds for electronic waste—a policy position that BAN has promoted for over a decade,” the organization says.
The Basel Ban Amendment, an international agreement that has ratified by 80 countries and is on the cusp of entering international legal force, BAN says, makes it illegal to export hazardous waste to developing countries from developed countries and is widely associated with the Basel Action Network.
The e-Stewards program recently announced its e-Stewards Marketplace (www.e-Stewardsmarketplace.com), an e-commerce site where refurbishable equipment will be able to be traded among e-Stewards Certified Recyclers and then refurbished and sold to businesses around the world to enhance greater reuse rates, BAN says.
"With care and intelligence and proper application of the Basel Convention obligations, it is very possible to bridge the digital divide without creating a digital dump," Puckett. "That is our goal."