Toxic Trade News / 1 March 2010
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Roll-call for e-scrap standards
by Manfred Beck, Recycling International
 
1 March 2010The ninth International Electronics Recycling Congress to be organised by Swiss company ICM took place in late January and attracted a record attendance of more than 400 delegates from 33 countries. In addition, the event drew 34 exhibitors to the parallel trade show - including equipment manufacturers and service providers. In this article, Recycling International reviews the highlights of a congress which has become a firm and important fixture on the electronics recycling calendar.

In the picturesque setting of the Austrian city of Salzburg, delegates attending the ninth International Electronics Recycling Congress (IERC) tackled a broad range of topics affecting this ever more important branch of the recycling industry. These included: the revision of the EU’s Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE); producer responsibility, collection and take-back systems; eco-labelling and auditing; recycling of liquid crystal displays; the environmental benefits of recycling; challenges in metals recycling; and investing during tough times. The wide-ranging programme also extended to country reports and an update on latest recycling technologies.

One of the leitmotifs of this year’s IERC was e-scrap standards covering, for example, collection, transportation, reporting, processing, auditing and certification - an issue which Europe’s WEEE Forum has been addressing since last year. The ultimate goal of the Forum, whose 21 members within the EU were together responsible for collecting 1.5 million tonnes of e-scrap in 2008, is improved protection of the environment. ‘The collection, storage, transportation, treatment and disposal of all kinds of WEEE should be improved to prevent pollution, minimise emissions and maximise the recovery of secondary feedstock material,’ it states. Furthermore, the Forum aims to ‘optimise the efficiency of member organisations’ operations while striving for continuous environmental improvement’.

The WEEE Forum looks to achieve these goals by: developing data management and reporting tools; voicing common concerns; benchmarking; sharing collection experiences; and producing ambitious standards. But Secretary General Pascal Leroy stated in Salzburg: ‘Despite sustained efforts by most stakeholders, there remains a huge scope for improvement.’

WEEELABEX project

The WEEE Forum began the WEEELABEX project in 2009 as a route to laying down a set of European standards relating to the collection, treatment, recovery and recycling of WEEE and to monitoring processing companies. The project, which has been approved by the European Commission and the EU’s member states, aspires to create a set of requirements based on legislation. However, it is more ambitious in the sense that its methodical and consistent requirement for documentation clearly goes beyond anything demanded by legislation.

The project aims to address a number of concerns and emerging realities, including those listed below.

  • The EU’s 2002 WEEE Directive was supposed to harmonise regulatory requirements with respect to the responsibilities for collection, recycling and recovery of e-waste in Europe, but the reality is that the requirements laid down in the Directive are interpreted and applied differently across Europe. The result is a patchwork quilt of few or no requirements as well as requirements that differ substantially from member state to member state, rendering economies of scale for processing companies difficult.

  • As a result, the WEEE playing field is not level, with the considerable differences in treatment practices creating unfair competition among companies. In some parts of Europe, post-shredder technologies are cutting edge while in others there is practically no experience at all.

  • Consumers and electronics producers who are paying for the management of WEEE have no assurance of the environmental performance of companies involved in collection, transportation, pre-treatment (de-pollution), treatment, and recovery and recycling.

  • Electrical and electronic equipment technologies undergo a rapid development process and emerging types of equipment - such as mercury-containing flat-panel displays and mercury-containing gas discharge lamps - demand new treatment solutions.

  • Owing to the fact that some EU member states fail to secure proper enforcement of their WEEE legislation, a number of processing companies succeed in gaining a competitive advantage thanks to the application of less environmentally sustainable activities.

More transparency

According to the WEEE Forum, WEEELABEX will make environmental performance more transparent and will level the playing field through the creation of a single, harmonised set of standards. It will create incentives for operators to meet the highest standards as well as disincentives for dishonest companies.

In contrast to the legislative requirements laid down in Annex II of the EU’s WEEE Directive, the WEEELABEX standards are claimed to provide a more flexible toolbox; laws and decrees are too inflexible because the electronics recycling landscape is constantly changing, it is argued.

Globally, and in Europe in particular, there exist many different types of standards, certification programmes, and marking and labelling schemes. The WEEELABEX project addresses all the steps in the chain, including collection and preparation for reuse, it is added.

The requirements relating to collection activities will be implemented - to the extent possible - by e-scrap collection and recovery organisations, it is explained. E-scrap operators that are subject to the standard will undergo third-party certification, meaning that first-party certification - or self-declaration - will not suffice as a means of demonstrating compliance with the standard. A third party that is financially and materially independent from the operator is deemed to be the only guarantee of a thorough compliance check.

The requirements laid down in the standard are minimum requirements. Producers and their collection and recovery organisations are free to stipulate other demands which go beyond the standard’s requirements - certainly if they are environmentally more ambitious, it is made clear.

WEEE collection organisations will be required to be in a position to demonstrate that they have contracted with certified partners and that the contracts are compliant with the standard. Certification may initially be carried out by a single certification company, but in time by accredited certification bodies. Auditors performing checks with a view to providing certification will be trained in accordance with the standard and will join a pool of auditors.

‘Label of Excellence’

According to the WEEE Forum, most e-scrap processing companies play by the rules and meet existing standards or regulatory requirements. However, they often tend to face fierce competition from companies that apply sub-optimal specifications or, worse, are engaged in semi-legal business activities, it acknowledges. In the long run, says the Forum, the ‘WEEE Label of Excellence’ will create a visible distinction between those operators that meet the highest standards and those that do not.

According to WEEE Forum Secretary General Pascal Leroy, the WEEELABEX project ‘will produce certification management procedures, such as formal requirements, the monitoring and auditing concept, and the sanction and cancellation procedure.’ Furthermore, it will create standards including technical requirements, documentation and reporting obligations, and managerial requirements with respect to e-scrap management. In addition, there will be an auditor’s ‘toolbox’ incorporating manuals, check lists, audit forms and so forth. And finally, the initiative will bring together a pool of auditors who are familiar with e-scrap processing technologies and who have been trained to audit in accordance with the standard.

R2, or responsible recycling

In the USA, there are currently two initiatives whose aim is to establish e-scrap standards. The first is called ‘R2’ or, in full, ‘the Responsible Recycling (R2) practices for use in accredited certification programmes for electronics recyclers’. R2 was developed under the authority of a multi-stakeholder group of electronics recyclers and refurbishers, the US Environmental Protection Agency, US state environmental agencies, and manufacturers of electrical and electronic devices. Initially, environmental justice organisations also formed part of the R2 initiative but these withdrew before the end of the development process; they had called for R2 to reflect the Basel Convention in such a way that the Basel Action Network (BAN) Amendment (and/or prohibition on trade with non-parties) would control exports, but other R2 participants disagreed.

R2 is a set of voluntary best management practices for the electronics recycling industry. They are to be used by accredited certification bodies that audit the environmental and worker health/safety performance of electronics recyclers.

According to John Lingelbach of Decisions & Agreements, the US company responsible for the execution of the R2 initiative, the project has been initiated because customers will increasingly ‘insist on third-party certification to a performance-based standard that reflects their customers’ and shareholders’ values’.

Focus materials

For a company to become a member of R2, it needs to develop and adhere to a comprehensive and documented environmental health and safety (EHS) management system. It must also know and comply with applicable legal requirements, and undertake a comprehensive set of actions to address EHS issues.

For so-called ‘focus materials’, it requires that e-scrap processors assure and document that exports - including exports by downstream vendors - are legal under the laws of the importing country. They must also do business only with those downstream vendors who conform to key R2 requirements.

According to R2 definitions, focus materials - whether extracted from or in equipment, including shredded equipment - are ‘materials in end-of-life electronic equipment that warrant greater care during recycling, refurbishing, materials recovery, energy recovery, incineration, and/or disposal due to their toxicity or other potential adverse worker health and safety, public health, or environmental effects that can arise if the materials are managed without appropriate safeguards’. The definition covers items containing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) or mercury, cathode ray tubes (CRTs) and CRT glass, batteries, as well as whole and most shredded circuit boards.

Under the R2 scheme, exports containing focus materials are prohibited to countries that ban their import.

e-Stewards Certification

The second US initiative relating to electronics scrap is e-Stewards Certification which takes the responsibility of the whole e-scrap chain further than R2. This was developed by BAN, a green organisation whose mission includes: prevention of the globalisation of the hazardous chemical crisis and toxic trade; and promotion of a toxics-free future and of global environmental justice. In Salzburg, BAN’s founder Jim Puckett called e-stewardship ‘the global solution for e-waste management’.

It was explained that e-Stewards are a group of leading North American e-scrap recyclers and asset managers who have been qualified as upholding the highest standard of environmental and social responsibility. In November 2008, BAN announced it would transform the existing R2 scheme into a full-accreditation, third-party-audited certification programme to be known as e-Stewards Certification.

‘This year, accredited certification bodies will independently assure conformity to revised e-Stewards standards, thus providing the highest level of assurance that they meet the world’s most responsible environmental and social justice criteria for electronics recyclers,’ Mr Puckett told IERC delegates. ‘These criteria include no toxic waste dumped in landfills or incinerators, exported to developing countries, or sent to prison labour operations, and no release of private data.’

According to BAN’s leader, e-Stewards Certification was initiated ‘to prevent high-tech trashing of e-scrap into Asia’. He explained: ‘In the USA, 80% of all e-scrap delivered to recyclers is exported, and every day 50 to 100 containers of e-waste arrive in Hong Kong. Europe’s leakage is estimated at 54% of all e-scrap shipped to sub-standard destinations. From Europe, around 500 containers per month are shipped into Lagos in Nigeria for so-called reuse, but it is estimated that about 75% of it is junk. The principle seems to be “out of sight out of mind”.’

Among other facets of what Mr Puckett called the ‘global e-waste crisis’, he identified the following: global diffusion and loss of valuable resources; data insecurity leading to the possibilities of identity theft, fraud, blackmail and invasion of privacy; export of untested or non-working equipment; and a lack of transparency with regard to legislated or voluntary take-back schemes. ‘Take back to where?’ he asked his audience.

Benefits for all

For all of the above reasons, there was an obvious need for a global, mainstream, accredited, independently-audited certification programme assuring conformity to a practical but principled global standard which is consistent with international law and which would benefit both recyclers and OEMs, Mr Puckett contended.

In June 2009, the final e-Stewards standard became available and the first e-Stewards auditor training took place. In March this year, the certification programme will be formally launched and, as of September 2011, all of the pledged e-Stewards must be fully certified or lose their e-Steward status. E-stewardship fully incorporates the ISO 14001 environmental management system.

Among the e-Stewards founders in the USA are: Boliden, California Electronic Asset Recovery, Cascade Asset Management, ECS Refining, Electronic Recyclers International, Green Citizen, Hesstech, Metech, Redemtech, WeRecycle!, Total Reclaim and Waste Management Recycle America. In addition, there are currently 43 licensed and pledged e-Steward recyclers which are committed to becoming certified by September 2011.

The e-Stewards standard is currently applicable to electronics recyclers, refurbishers, asset managers, processors and refiners. Collectors, brokers, transportation companies and end processors (smelters) are currently not eligible for e-Stewards certification.

‘E-stewardship is not limited to North America,’ Mr Puckett emphasised in Salzburg. ‘Any company operating in an EU or OECD country can contact BAN and become certified today. We are open for business!’

 
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