EPA Moves to Control E-Waste As Congress Seeks Export Ban

Date: July 3, 2011

Source: News Room

The EPA is looking at expanding its regulations of discarded cathode ray tubes (CRTs) as a way to enhance enforcement of its export restrictions at a time when lawmakers in Congress are reintroducing legislation that would ban the export of CRTs and other electronic wastes (e-waste). For its part, industry, represented in part by the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), opposes the legislative effort which they see as limiting recyclers' options and hurting markets for recovered materials.

EPA's action would obviate the need for the legislative effort. It would also address concerns raised by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in a 2008 report that criticized the existing CRT rule for doing little discourage exports of potentially harmful electronics and faulted the agency for lax enforcement. EPA, according to its latest Action Initiation List (AIL) released June 27, said it is working to strengthen its 2006 Resource Conservation & Recovery Act (RCRA) rule that restricts exports of the discarded CRTs and considering "including additional items to the notification required for CRTs exported for reuse" and is also planning to clarify the definition of "exporter" to address potential liability for brokers and other intermediaries dealing with CRT exports.

At issue are concerns that CRTs and other used electronics are shipped overseas where workers and others handling the material are exposed to their hazardous constituents due to unsafe recycling practices. But the GAO report and other investigations have documented numerous cases of companies disregarding provisions of the CRT rule.

See also: "Congress Proposes Bill to Prohibit E-Waste Exports," (www.wasteinfo.com/news/wbj20110630E.htm).

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