Two non-profit organizations -- the National Center for Electronics Recycling, and the Northeast Recycling Council Inc. – have jointly announced the formation of the Electronics Recycling Coordination Clearinghouse. The goal of the ERCC is to serve as a forum for coordination and information exchange among state and local agencies that are implementing electronics recycling take-back laws.
The ERCC will be administered by the Northeast Recycling Council, Inc. and managed by the National Center for Electronics Recycling.
“Despite the patchwork of state requirements on electronics recycling, the ERCC will play a valuable role in reducing administrative overlap and simplifying compliance efforts for manufacturers and other impacted stakeholders,” said Jason Linnell, NCER’s executive director. The ERCC is not starting from scratch in creating a multi-state cooperation forum. The governance, dues structure, and basic activities are modeled on the successful organization currently managed by NERC known as the Toxics in Packaging Clearinghouse.
“TPCH has demonstrated over the years that providing this type of coordination can provide benefits to and reduce costs for state governments and the regulated community in addition to providing consistency to the impacted industry, and we are excited to extend this model to electronics recycling programs,” said NERC Executive Director Lynn Rubinstein.
The ERCC is divided into two basic types of membership. The first are the voting members, who are states and local governments that are implementing electronics recycling laws. The ERCC also includes an affiliate, non-voting membership consisting of industry and other organizations. The ERCC provides affiliate members a forum to efficiently and effectively meet with state regulators to discuss the various aspects of their legislation, and a single resource destination for important information needed to make timely decisions that affect issues in multiple states.
The ERCC will kick off key projects in the coming months to collect and maintain updated data on collection volumes, manufacturer contact information, and return share. Additionally, member states will be able to pursue projects such as combining manufacturer registration forms and joint access to needed market research data.
More information and news will be posted to the ERCC website located at www.electronicsrecycling.org/ercc.