California is Laboratory for Electronics Recycling

Lawmakers in California are introducing legislation that could put the Golden State out front in state mandates for the recycling of computers and electronic appliances.

Speaking at the opening session of the International Symposium on Electronics & the Environment in San Francisco on Monday, Michael Paparian of the California Integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB) noted several initiatives underway or being considered in the state.

California is among the states that now classify monitor or television cathode ray tubes (CRTs) “as a hazardous waste, due to their lead content.” Accompanying regulations are still being  issued, according to Paparian, but regulations applicable to “those handling them for recyclable purposes [are] quite minimal,” he told attendees.

Two bills that have been introduced in California will create a recycling fee that will be collected by retailers of new computers and other electronic devices. Those fees will go toward collection programs for end-of-life electronic equipment. One of the bills will also create a sticker system to inform consumers that hazardous materials are contained within their devices.

Potential recycling barriers are still looming, he remarked, noting that in addition to concerns about lead dust and mercury, the use of brominated flame retardant coatings on plastic parts is a newer concern. According to Paparian, traces of the chemicals used in the flame retardants are “showing up in blood samples, and even mother’s milk, of recycling workers.”

In the worst case scenario, this could “raise the question of the feasibility of recycling the plastic component of the e-waste stream.”

In a paper that will be presented Tuesday, two researchers from Albemarle Corp., Baton Rouge, La., state, “preliminary results [from Europe] indicate that risks associated with [the brominated flame retardant] are low, and this is consistent with a report from the National Academy of Sciences.”

Also speaking to attendees on Monday was Sheila Davis of the Materials for the Future Foundation, San Francisco. She urged them to consider the societal implications of exporting electronic scrap for processing or in using prison labor.

She said the use of workers in developing countries unknowingly and unsafely working with hazardous materials is a signal to manufacturers that the current disposal and recycling methods are not sound.

Similarly, she said the use of subsidized prison labor in the U.S. rather than a well-paid work force domestically demonstrates that the recycling system needs more attention. “You don’t want a system that relies on the lowest common denominator,” she remarked to symposium attendees.