National Strategy for Electronics Stewardship 'Huge Step Forward'

Lora Bentley spoke with Robert Houghton, president and founder of change management solution provider Redemtech, about the new National Strategy for Electronics Stewardship.

Issued jointly by the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the Environmental Protection Agency and the General Services Administration, the strategy sets out four goals: increasing effective management of used electronics within the U.S., reducing harm from U.S. exports of used electronics, creating incentives for “greener” electronics design, and ensuring that government agencies practice what they preach.

Bentley: What do you think about the new strategy that has been set out?
Houghton: We’ve been meeting with folks in these roles in government and talking to them about where they are and where they’d like to be. Overall, I’d say this is a huge step forward, particularly in a time where government budget deficits are such a big topic.

What the government has done is make a commitment to be more sustainable, at least in terms of its electronics. Stakeholders have outlined an objective for much more reuse, which is currently almost nonexistent at the federal level because of some operational stumbling blocks that they have.

Bentley: How is the new strategy different from previous ones?
Houghton: If you look at the new policy with a broad brush, [the government is] saying it wants to maximize reuse; it wants a better process in place for ensuring data security on used equipment, which is dramatically needed. Equally important, it wants more accountability on true end-of-life equipment, the stuff that has to be recycled, by stipulating that recycling has to be done by certified recyclers.

All of that is a major step forward to make government more efficient in terms of IT and bring it closer to private sector best practice standards. I really think the government is to be commended. They didn’t have to do this. They’re certainly not going to make everyone happy, but they’re setting the bar high but at an achievable point.

Bentley: I’ve read that not everyone is happy. Do you know what the sticking points are?
Houghton: The thing that is disappointing, primarily I think to the environmental side of the stakeholder spectrum, is the lack of a strong position on the export question. There are a number of factors that weigh in on this. For example, the report points out that 74 percent of all electronics for recycling are exported at this point rather than being recycled domestically.

One of the things that I say when I’m trying to explain the status quo of the electronics recycling industry to government officials is that we [in the U.S.] have outsourced electronics recycling from the beginning of the electronics industry. We never really built an adequate infrastructure to recycle the products being built ... We didn’t build the means to take care of it at end of life in our own country.

Bentley: OK
Houghton: Now, a number of companies like Redemtech — responding to demand from some of the more forward-thinking and responsible corporate generators of surplus electronics — have developed the capability to responsibly and fully recycle in the U.S. So there is a market demand for it.

Bentley: But?
Houghton: There’s a tremendous economic divide between the export model and the responsible recycling model. So I tell policy makers we can really justify legislation or regulation requiring more domestic recycling. Based on studies that we’ve seen and our own operations, Redemtech estimates that for every job exporting electronics recycling we could create seven jobs by recycling domestically.

What’s more, when you’re exporting scrap, the value is relatively low. If you put the electronic scrap through a recycling process so that you’re sorting and upgrading the material and then exporting it as finished feed stock material, you export it at a much higher value.

Bentley: So what do you say to the stakeholders who criticize this strategy because it doesn’t take a stronger stand on the export issue?
Houghton: I would say the government went pretty far given the opposition to trade restrictions. It wants to reduce the amount of export and promote and incentivize recycling domestically. It’s a good first step.