Electronics Recycling Conference: The Tide Is High

With the rapid obsolescence of consumer technology and the demise of analog television, are recyclers facing a flood of material at their facilities? Speakers at the session titled “Riding Tides for Collection” offered their insights into this question during the Electronics Recycling Conference & Trade Show June 22-24 in Chicago.

While the number of electronics heading for disposition is growing, recyclers have yet to be inundated with material, as reaching consumers still remains difficult.

Edo Cohen, vice president of business development for Flipswap, Torrance, Calif., addressed the issue of the rapid refresh of cell phone technology in the United States. Cohen said of the 180 million cell phones retired yearly in the U.S., less than 10 percent are recycled. Cohen, citing data from CTIA The Wireless Association 2006 E-Waste Survey, said four out of 10 Americans held on to their old cell phones because they didn’t know what to do with them. However, these discarded phones hold nearly $100 million worth of gold, which is comparable to the output of a mid-size mine, Cohen said, citing Earthworks data.

While some states, such as California, had legislation mandating that cell phone retailers provide free recycling to consumers, Cohen said consumers are often unaware that such recycling options exist. Retailers often fail to provide consumers with a direct incentive to participate in such programs and there may be no incentive for retailers to promote these programs, he added.

Demand for refurbished phones is expected to increase, reaching $6 billion in sales by 2012, according to Cohen, who noted that the secondary market was “huge and growing.”

David Thompson of Panasonic Corp of America and president of MRM (Electronics Manufacturers Recycling Management Co.), which was founded by Panasonic, Toshiba and Sharp, addressed manufacturer responsibilities under Minnesota’s electronics recycling law. MRM is also expanding beyond Minnesota to other states in the U.S., with the goal of having a national program to collect and recycle electronics.

Thompson said, “We believe it’s our job to take the responsibility for collecting and managing these products, and we are trying to do that through this organization.”

Since the launch of MRM, Fujitsu, Funai, Hitachi, Imation, JVC, Mitsubishi, Philips, Pioneer, Sanyo, Syntax-Brillian, Toshiba Laptop and Vizio have also joined the program.

The MRM program provides free electronics recycling to consumers that includes free transportation to an approved recycler. MRM pays 2 cents per pound to collectors to offset some of the collection costs as well as provides Gaylord boxes and pallets.

Thompson said MRM had 75 collectors in the state of Minnesota and had staged approximately 20 collection events throughout the state in 2007 and early 2008.

He added that the company was seeking responsible recyclers that met the following criteria:

• Possess the ability to clean CRT glass in the U.S.;
• Do not export product for recycling;
• Do not use prison labor;
• Offer full transparency into downstream markets; and
• Follow EPA Environmental Management Practices.

“Manufacturers face significant challenges in that we have several states that have passed these types of laws," he stated. "It is our belief at Panasonic that no individual manufacturer is going to solve this alone and that we really can best address it through some sort of collaborative or collective effort where we step up to the plate and manage this process of collection and recycling.”

Jake Player, president of TechTurn, Austin, Texas, addressed the area of computer recycling, noting that 70 to 80 million computers were retired each year in the U.S., a figure that was growing at a rate of 45 percent annually. He added that only 10 percent of computers were going to asset recovery companies like TechTurn at disposition.

Player noted that the Microsoft Authorized Refurbisher (MAR) program was a key component to the reuse of personal computers and laptops in that it allowed the use of such a product to be extended by enabling the installation of Microsoft operating systems on these devices at a reduced cost.

Player also noted the divide that exists between consumer and corporate attitudes about computer recycling. “There is a huge divide between the business side of retirement disposition and the consumer side of retirement disposition,” Player said. On the business side, customers were essentially interested in data erasure, asset level reporting and environmental metrics, he said. Because of these concerns, corporations often perform compliance audits of their recyclers.

Consumers, however, were looking for convenience and low cost, Player said. “Consumers are not willing to pay to recycle responsibly,” he added.

The Electronics Recycling Conference & Trade Show is organized by the Recycling Today Media Group. The 2009 event will be in Atlanta June 7-9. More information is available at www.RecyclingTodayEvents.com.