New York Lawmakers Working on E-Waste Bill

Date: May 18, 2010

Source: News Room

New York state lawmakers are close to passing the nation's strictest electronics waste (e-waste) recycling law that would require consumer electronics manufacturers to recover and recycle 100 million pounds of material per year within five years. The bills being reconciled in both houses of state government would preempt any city or local e-waste provisions, voiding a controversial and long-contested New York City law. The consumer electronics industry filed a lawsuit against the city in federal court in Manhattan asking a judge to suspend that law, arguing that it would require manufacturers to set up an unreasonably expensive door-to-door collection system, among other complaints.

The New York Senate and Assembly are at odds over whether manufacturers can charge governments and nonprofits for e-waste collection. The Assembly version would require manufacturers to provide free collection while the Senate version would allow them to charge anyone other than state and local government. Both versions of the bill require that manufacturers pay for initiatives to keep e-waste out of landfills, expand the scope of products that must be collected, and target a larger volume of material: 3 pounds per capita, rising to 5 pounds per capita in later years. The Natural Resources Defense Council, which has designed other states' e-waste measures and designed the New York City law, helped craft the legislation. So far, there are separate e-waste programs in 20 states in addition to New York City's law. Vermont became the most recent state to establish e-waste recycling last month.

According to the Electronics TakeBack Coalition, there are nine other states with pending e-waste laws including bills introduced this year in New York, Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.

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