GSA Announces New Guidelines for Electronic Scrap

The U.S. General Services Administration has released new guidelines that ban all federal agencies from disposing of electronic scrap in landfills. The new guidelines were announced by GSA Administrator Martha Johnson March 1, 2012. The guidelines do not prohibit the export of electronic scrap. However, the GSA says federal agencies may require additional reporting from recyclers to satisfy the agencies’ tracking requirements.

 

Companies will have to perform downstream monitoring in accordance with the certifications they hold. 

In addition to restricting the landfilling of all electronic scrap, the new guidelines direct all electronics to be delivered to electronics recyclers that are either certified to the R2 (Responsible Recycling Practices) or the e-Stewards standards.
 

Johnson says, “The federal government as a whole is the nation’s largest consumer of electronics, and through this policy it will now be a more responsible user of electronics. We are ensuring that electronics from federal agencies will be reused or sent to certified e-waste recycling plants. These steps are protecting human health and the environment, while supporting jobs in the growing e-waste industry.”
 

The new policy directs federal agencies to reuse electronics to the maximum extent possible and then direct non-functioning products to certified e-waste recyclers. Federal agencies will be required to send the obsolete electronics to electronics recycling firms that are certified by R2 or e-Stewards standards.
 

The GSA is asking that federal agencies track the destinations of the discarded electronics. Beginning in 2012, the GSA says it will more effectively account for every device leaving the government, including where each one goes. The destination will be recorded and be available to the public at the website www.data.gov. 
 

The policy also incorporates transparency and accountability into this process by requiring federal agencies to track the volume and destination of electronics they send out for reuse and recycling and report that data online annually, which GSA will make available to the public on www.data.gov.
 

The new guidelines follow President Obama issuing Executive Order 13514 that sets sustainability goals for federal agencies to improve their environmental, energy and economic performance. 

 

This executive order called for GSA, the White House Council on Environmental Quality and the Environmental Protection Agency to create the National Strategy on Electronic Stewardship. The National Strategy tasked GSA to develop policies for federal agencies to responsibly purchase, manage and recycle electronics.