Representatives from electronics manufacturers, government agencies, environmental groups, and others have made significant progress in developing a nationwide plan for managing used electronics.
In a meeting held earlier this month, all stakeholders in the National Electronics Product Stewardship Initiative agreed to work toward establishing a financing system that will include the costs of managing used electronic products in the overall purchase price of new electronic products.
The agreement commits the stakeholders to work on developing a “front-end financed system” during the remaining work of the NEPSI Dialogue and to develop an action plan for establishing this system that includes federal legislation needed to facilitate the implementation of the system. The plan includes steps that can be taken during the period before the “front-end” system is in place nationally that will improve existing systems for managing used electronics and prepare for the new financing system.
The NEPSI identified several issues remaining to be resolved, including the timeframe for implementing the front-end financed system, how to make the system convenient for consumers, whether it can provide incentives for product design, and how the costs and responsibilities for collection, reuse, and recycling will be shared among producers, retailers, consumers, and governments.
The group also discussed the exporting used electronics from the U.S. for dangerous backyard recycling by workers in Asia that was highlighted by a recent report. They agreed that the NEPSI Dialogue will make recommendations on how to address this problem in developing a nationwide system for used electronics management.