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California Sets Compliance Pace
By Jeff Chappell -- Electronic News, 9/7/2005
The state that accounts for 15 percent of all the electronics sold in the U.S. market is taking the lead in stateside electronics recycling and hazardous substance bans.
Whether or not electronics manufacturers and consumers like it, California is leading the way in the United States when it comes to electronics recycling and the banning of hazardous substances from electronics.
Many critics of electronics waste disposal and recovery efforts in the United States cite the apparent patchwork approach that is developing here at the state level. Nevertheless, while members of Congress have begun initial consideration of a federally mandated approach, efforts are already under way in California.
While California's approach may well serve as a template for other American states to follow, even if it does not catch on elsewhere, California's new electronics waste laws bear consideration. According to numbers from the Legislative Analyst's Office, California's nonpartisan fiscal and policy advisor, taken by itself, California has one of the largest economies in the world, on par with Great Britain, Germany or France. And California alone accounts for some 15 percent of all the electronics sold in the United States.
Even if the other American states do not follow suit, the impact of the California legislation will be felt.
California first passed its Electronic Waste Recycling Act in 2003, later amending it late last year; and some of its provisions began to come into play this year, with other aspects of the law slated to come online next year and in 2007. In late 2004, California also passed a recycling act geared specifically for cellular phones, dubbed appropriately, the California Cell Phone Recycling Act, which is slated to go into effect in 2006.
Monitoring Monitor Recycling
At the present time, the Electronic Waste Recycling Act only requires that electronics incorporating cathode ray tube (CRT) or flat panel displays four-inches wide (diagonally) or larger be recycled. California has put the onus of cost on the end user, the consumer, although manufacturers have to meet certain requirements under the law, as well.
As of this year, devices with electronic displays, including stand-alone monitors and televisions, both LCD and plasma-based, have a fee tacked onto their cost at their point of sale in California: $6 when the screen is larger than 4 inches, but smaller than 15 inches; $8 when the screen is at least 15 inches, but smaller than 35 inches; and $10 when the screen is 35 inches or larger.
Electronics device makers are required to inform retailers, even those selling their products through third-party distributors, if their products are covered by California's electronic waste laws and regulations and the aforementioned fee. The collected fees will be deposited in an Electronic Waste Recovery and Recycling Account managed by California and used for payments to authorized collectors and recyclers of electronic waste. These recyclers currently get 28 cents per pound of waste they process.
This will in turn foster the development of recycling efforts and offset the cost of managing electronic waste, according to California lawmakers and regulators. As of June of this year, California had collected about $7.8 million under the program, the Legislative Analyst's Office reports.
As for other electronics, including consumer electronics, the Electronic Waste Recycling Act doesn't specifically address their specific reclamation or disposal, but it will eventually make it illegal for anyone to dispose of them as trash in a California landfill. Right now, individual consumers may still dispose of other consumer electronics in the trash, aside from displays, although that will change as of February 2006, when it will become illegal. Small businesses may also continue to dispose of certain types of electronics as simple trash until 2006, provided certain conditions are met.
While the burden would seem to be on the consumer under this legislation, California also enacted separate legislation late last year specifically for cellular phones that puts the emphasis on the retailer. The Cell Phone Recycling Act of 2004 will require retailers to have a system in place to collect cell phones, including their batteries, for reuse, recycling or proper disposal (other than in a landfill) by July 1 of next year, if they want to continue to sell cell phones in California.
California Follows Europe's Lead
Another aspect of the Electronic Waste Recycling Act that perhaps has the larger impact among electronics manufacturers is a ban on hazardous substances, such as lead. While the European Union laws regarding these substances have grabbed all the headlines, California is poised to follow suit.
Beginning in January of 2007, a provision in the 2003 California statute will go into effect, mirroring the requirements of the European Union's Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS). It will effectively prohibit the sale of any electronics in California that would be prohibited under the RoHS directive in Europe, which goes into effect in July of next year. The California law is somewhat more limited, however, in scope in terms of the consumer electronics affected.
Many in the electronics industry have suggested that the California ban won't really have an impact for large, global electronics manufacturers, as they will already be addressing these issues for the European market. But industry critics opposed to the banning of lead and lead solder have pointed out that there are a number of small electronics businesses based in California that would not have been largely effected by the European RoHS laws, but will be by the California laws that mirror them.
