AUSTRALIA: OEM's E-WASTE CAMPAIN LOOSES STEAM

[Anonymous]

AUSTRALIA: OEM’s E-WASTE CAMPAIN LOOSES STEAM
Participants fear e-waste recycling scheme has lost direction
THE Total Environment Centre says the long-awaited television and computer recovery program has been jeopardised by the "distortion" of key objectives in draft regulations for the scheme.The centre blames the federal Sustainability Department for "inappropriately distorting" policy commitments made by Australia’s environment ministers in consultation with industry and community organisations."This approach will encourage poor-quality ‘backyard’ operators, will deliver far below 80 per cent recycling levels and will not meet consumer expectations," it said.

The department’s discussion paper undermined the National TV and Computer Product Stewardship Scheme in three ways, it said. The draft regulations would cover only the collection of e-waste at end of life, rather than reducing harmful impacts across a product’s lifetime, no minimum rate of recycling had been set and proper handling of hazardous materials had not been mandated."The proposed regulations weaken the key aims of reducing the impacts on the environment and on the health and safety of human beings," the centre said. "Likewise, they undermine efforts to reduce the amount of e-waste going to landfill and boost the recovery of resources in a safe and environmentally sound manner."The centre said the paper changed the main goal of achieving an 80 per cent recycling rate over time, to simply "lifting collection-only rates" to 80 per cent. "It’s critical to understand that the collection rate is not synonymous with recycling. Actual recovery rates will be well below this level."

The Australian Information Industry Association, which has pushed for co-regulatory e-waste recycling for more than a decade, has also expressed frustration.It pointed to its successful Byteback program in Victoria, which has kept more than 3000 tonnes of e-waste out of landfill over the past five years.Since early last year, 11 member companies — Acer, Apple, Canon, Dell, Epson, Fuji Xerox, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Lenovo, Lexmark and Toshiba — have invested about $500,000 in developing a framework for a national scheme.

Last month, the AIIA and Product Stewardship Australia agreed to operate as a single product stewardship organisation representing 70-80 per cent of leading brand importers.In a joint submission supported by the Consumer Electronic Suppliers Association, they warned that the "significance of effective co-regulation which meets the needs and expectations of industry cannot be over-emphasised".

They wanted the government to address the problem of free-riders — importers that did not participate and therefore had a commercial pricing advantage."It must be noted that the genesis and driver for regulatory intervention on e-waste is directly related to industry demands," they said. Without provisions to capture free-riders, "a meaningful national scheme" was unlikely

[Author]

April 27, 2011 at 7:49 AM