The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released its “Advancing Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) Facts and Figures” report (formerly known as the “MSW Characterization Report"), showing progress in consumer electronics recycling in the United States. Recycling of consumer electronics increased from 30.6 percent in 2012 to 40.4 percent in 2013, the same year EPA launched the Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) Electronics Challenge to promote responsible donation and recycling of used electronics, the agency says.
Through its SMM program, the EPA says it seeks the most productive and sustainable use of materials across their life cycles, minimizing the amounts of materials involved and the associated environmental impacts.
Earlier this month, the EPA notes, the G7 (Group of Seven, which comprises the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom) committed to ambitious action to advance the efficient use of natural resources throughout their life cycle.
“For the first time, the leaders of the G7 have officially recognized the importance of the link between materials recovery and the global economy and established the G7 Alliance on Resource Efficiency,” says Mathy Stanislaus, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. “Building on the progress on sustainable materials management, EPA is engaging the business, government and NGO (nongovernmental organizations) sectors to leverage this new report and G7 declaration to identify and act on opportunities for resource efficiency.”
SMM is a systemic approach to using and reusing materials more productively over their entire life cycles to identify opportunities to reduce environmental impacts, conserve resources and reduce costs. EPA says it is advancing SMM by convening dialogues with key stakeholders, providing sound science and information to the public and establishing challenges to specific sectors to achieve shared goals.
The annex to the G7 Leaders’ declaration notes that establishing a G7 Alliance on Resource Efficiency will provide a forum to exchange and promote best practices and to foster innovation together with business and other stakeholders, including from the public sector, research institutions, academia, consumers and civil society on a voluntary basis, the EPA notes. Unsustainable consumption of natural resources and environmental degradation translates into increasing business risks through higher material costs, as well as supply uncertainties and disruptions. Resource efficiency offers opportunities to reduce the burden on the environment while strengthening the sustainability, competitiveness and growth of the economy, the agency says. The G7 Alliance on Resource Efficiency aims to promote an exchange of concepts on how to address the challenges of resource efficiency, to share best practices and experience and to create information networks.
The EPA says that for every 1 million cellphones recycled, 35,000 pounds of copper, 772 pounds of silver, 75 pounds of gold and 33 pounds of palladium can be recovered. Through EPA’s SMM Electronics Challenge, equipment manufacturers and retailers are promoting responsible electronics recycling. Challenge participants send 100 percent of their used electronics to a recognized third-party-certified recycler by the third year of their participation and publicly report this information.
Consumers can find a location to donate or recycle their electronics by visiting www2.epa.gov/recycle/electronics-donation-and-recycling.
Also in 2012, EPA launched the Food Recovery Challenge to address the largest waste stream going to landfills. More than 700 participants have joined and committed to preventing wasted food and feeding people, the agency says.