Push begins for recycling of ‘e-waste’

Advocates want to keep electronics out of landfills

By Dennis Webb
Wednesday, December 28, 2011

As people enjoy playing with all of the new electronic gadgets they received this holiday season, recycling advocates are urging them to not just throw away their old ones.

And if some of these proponents get things their way, tossing such items in Colorado landfills no longer would be an option.

Marjorie Griek, executive director of the Colorado Association for Recycling, said state Sen. Gail Schwartz, D-Snowmass Village, agreed to sponsor legislation banning such materials from landfills. That will help boost the recycling industry, create jobs and keep so-called rare-earth metals and other valuable materials from going to waste, she said.

Such a ban already is in place at the Mesa County Landfill. Griek said the proposed legislation is among recommendations from a task force the Legislature set up in 2009 to look at electronic-waste issues.

The legislation also is supported by the Colorado Environmental Coalition. Proponents say 70 percent of heavy metals in Colorado’s landfills come from discarded electronics. Substances such as mercury and lead can pose environmental dangers.

Recycling advocates estimate Colorado throws away between 40,000 and 161,000 tons of electronic waste each year, and it recycles about 8,000 tons.

At least 17 states already ban such materials from landfills. Those states recycle an average of 5 pounds of residential electronic waste per person each year, about five times Colorado’s average.

California taxes electronics purchases to pay for recycling. Some states require electronics manufacturers to collect and recycle electronics waste.

Griek sees a landfill ban in Colorado as being friendlier to local recycling businesses than other approaches.

“I think that we’ll be able to create more jobs this way. We’ll be able to keep those materials in the state instead of shipping them out elsewhere,” she said.

The proposal raises questions about whether it might prompt more illegal dumping of electronic waste, especially considering there generally is a fee attached to recycling such waste. Griek said such fees are necessary to disassemble items and handle toxic materials in a proper manner.

“That does cost a lot of money, but it does create the jobs,” she said.

She said the recycling fees usually are fairly small.

“Most people seem to be willing to pay that even now without a ban on recycling,” she said.

She doesn’t think a ban would create an illegal-dumping issue.

“I think that most people want to do the right thing. Throwing these electronics away is bad for the environment. We’re throwing away jobs by doing that, and we’re losing valuable material,” she said.

Bureau of Land Management property sometimes is an illegal dumping ground for all kinds of trash. Steven Hall, a Colorado BLM spokesman, said any time the agency sees actions that might affect whether people can dispose of things efficiently, it can raise concerns about leading to dumping on public lands. But he said the BLM wouldn’t take any position on the proposed legislation, and it is cautious about commenting on state legislation in general.

“The state is better equipped to make decisions on how the state wants to handle it,” he said.

He said people need to realize that because they own public lands, “it’s kind of like whether or not you want to dump stuff in your backyard when you decide to dispose of stuff on public lands.”

If Colorado wants examples of how a ban on landfills accepting electronic waste might play out, it doesn’t need to look out of state.

“We’ve had a no e-waste policy at the landfill since 2009,” said Cameron Garcia, solid-waste director for Mesa County.

Instead, the landfill offers e-waste recycling for a fee of 42 cents a pound.

“To be honest with you, it’s probably one of our most popular programs,” Garcia said.

He said when the county implemented its ban, it worried about the potential to contribute to illegal dumping. But many Mesa County residents appear to be taking advantage of the recycling program. Last year the landfill recycled 172,000 pounds of e-waste.

“Our program seems to be working and filling a void for this type of recycling,” he said. “… It’s the fastest-growing solid-waste stream in the country, so you need to start managing this material.”

Unfortunately, he said, even if the county offered a free recycling program, as it does now for household hazardous waste, “there’s still people who will dump it out into the desert.”

LifeSpan Technology Recycling contracts with the Mesa County and city of Grand Junction recycling programs to accept their e-waste for processing. Its president, Dag Adamson, said other counties such as Garfield and Pitkin have adopted policies like Mesa County’s, and these communities are showing that a statewide ban on dumping these wastes in landfills would work. A state ban on dumping such wastes in landfills by businesses already is in place, he added.

As e-waste recyclers promote a ban on residential waste as well, they also are working to address concerns arising as a result of some bad actors in their industry. These include a Denver-area company that was the subject of a “60 Minutes” story reporting that the e-waste it accepted for recycling instead was dumped in China. Company officials now face federal charges.

The industry seeks to prevent such abuses through certification processes that address considerations such as protecting worker health and safety, prohibiting export of e-waste, and having processing facility closure plans in place and adequate pollution-liability coverage.

“Those companies are audited regularly to make sure that they meet those standards,” Griek said.

Adamson said Grand Junction and Mesa County require that their e-waste be handled only by certified companies.