Utah’s E-Waste May Get Capitol Solution

 

The Utah Division of Solid and Hazardous Waste is supporting ongoing negotiations between industry, conservationists and state lawmakers over what to do with tons of antiquated electronics teeming with hazardous chemicals currently being dumped in municipal landfills across the state.

“We are very committed to having a process that has stakeholder involvement,” said Rusty Lundberg, branch manager for the Division of Solid and Hazardous Waste (DSHS). “We recognize e-waste is a problem that must be addressed.”

In September, state lawmakers will convene in interim session to tackle the issue as an alternative to legislation that did not pass during the 2006 session. Sen. Scott McCoy, D-Salt Lake, sponsored SB215, which would have banned electronic waste in landfills by 2007 and created a task force to look at the issue. “The landfill ban was meant to be a stick to prompt the task force to take the issue seriously,” McCoy said.

Rep. Ralph Becker, D-Salt Lake, had tried on earlier occasions to push e-waste legislation, also without success. His legislation would have required the Department of Environmental Quality to develop a Web site instructing Utahns about where they could recycle old electronics, like computers and televisions that are discarded to landfills where decaying circuit boards and PC screens could leak toxic substances like mercury, lead and chromium. “We are seeing a lot of experimentation in other states,” Becker said, “and I am encouraged the Legislature will finally address this issue.”

Four other states have laws governing e-waste. California bans e-waste in municipal landfills and attaches a recycling fee to the purchase price of all electronic products to pay for disposal. Maine, Washington and Maryland require manufacturers to take back old products without charging consumers.

Dennis Downs, director of DSHW, says Utahns can take their old, obsolete gear to a hazardous waste collection point in Salt Lake County, which now has contracted with a reputable recycler, Colorado-based GRX (Guaranteed Recycling Xperts), to make it cost efficient for Utahns to drop off their e-waste. “When people have to pay to get rid of their old electronics it creates a disincentive,” said Downs. “In the future we hope we can find ways to minimize the expense to homeowners so that old TVs and other equipment won’t end up in the municipal landfills.”

For lawmakers, environmentalists and retailers here in Utah, recycling means solving the quandary of e-waste that is growing in volumes. The Recycling Coalition of Utah held a recycling conference and e-waste summit on June 8, attended by industry executives, DEQ and EPA officials, along with Sen. McCoy and Rep. Becker.

According to Anne Peters, a national e-waste consultant, 1.2 percent of all municipal solid waste in the nation is e-waste. In Utah, 200,000 computers and televisions were recycled in 2004, 400,000 were disposed of in landfills, and 1.1 million were in storage. That, she said, is a missed economic opportunity for recyclers, adding that every 10,000 tons of e-waste could be generating 130 jobs.

Brad Mertz, director of Recycling Coalition of Utah, said he is committed to working with state lawmakers to come up with an approach to e-waste management. “We will put proposals together and we will move ahead with that challenge,” he said.

There is precedence for state law to require recycling. Lawmakers previously approved a mandatory recycling fee attached to new tire purchases. That revenue is used to promote used tire recycling to ensure the old treads did not end up in the landfill. The program has been a huge success.

McCoy prefers the approach by three other states to require manufacturers to accept their antiquated products for recycling, noting that Dell and Hewlett Packard already do that voluntarily. But there is always resistance on Capitol Hill to those kinds of mandates.

“Lawmakers have a clean slate on this issue,” McCoy said. “We have time before the 2007 session to come up with a legislative solution. There is always a chance it won’t pass in 2007, but at least it will lay the groundwork for 2008.”

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