Organizations disapprove of Pennsylvania’s electronics recycling legislation and proposed amendment

Five of Pennsylvania’s recycling, litter and waste management organizations representing key stakeholder factions affected by the 2010 Covered Device Recycling Act (CDRA) have united in disapproval of CDRA and its proposed amendment, House Bill 1900.

The Electronics Recycling Association of Pennsylvania (ERAP), Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful (KPB), the Pennsylvania Recycling Markets Center (RMC), the Professional Recyclers of Pennsylvania (PROP) and the Keystone Chapter of the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) say they are in consensus on the steps necessary to revamp access to electronic scrap recycling opportunities for Pennsylvania citizens.

“CDRA inadvertently created an environment in which a once-growing Pennsylvania electronics waste recycling industry nearly collapsed,” says Ned Eldridge, ERAP president. “This forced counties and recyclers across Pennsylvania to reduce or abandon their once productive programs.”

According to a recent survey conducted by RMC in conjunction with Penn State, many e-scrap collection sites and services are now inadequate to handle all devices as covered by the law and have ultimately ceased in many counties. 

“We all concur that HB 1900 will not remedy the situation,” says Jennifer Summers, PROP executive director. 

Shannon Reiter, KPB president agrees, saying, “Strong similarities in member and stakeholder feedback independently experienced by each group reinforces that HB 1900, like CDRA, fails to incentivize electronics manufacturers to fulfill their obligations and does not ensure a level playing field for collection programs, scrap recyclers, transporters and, most importantly, Pennsylvania consumers.”

The alliance says it has asked the Pennsylvania legislature to review and consider its technical concerns and has offered concepts for a comprehensive sustainable solution. 

Keystone SWANA President Robert Zorbaugh says, “The recommendations were authored by industry and policy experts and supported by a broad coalition of stakeholders that includes county and local governments.”

The full list of concerns and recommendations are available at www.ewastepa.org, a website developed by KPB to help educate the public about CDRA and related issues. 

A sampling of the recommendations include:

• clearly defined extended producer responsibility (EPR) responsibilities, including a timeline to ensure reasonable and uninterrupted financial continuity to support the operation along with monetary incentives linked with performance criteria to promote efficiency and cost reduction;
• comprehensive service coverage through a state-organized system of services that assures collection sites would operate in each county with or without the need for local government resources and responsibility;
• minimum standards for collection sites to help manage and control operational excesses and costs by site operators;
• just compensation and fair pricing by establishing a competitive bidding process for the State Default Plan services, with the bill requiring original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to cover the cost of all covered materials physically collected, transported and processed under the system throughout the entire year;
• allowances for new technologies and options for cathode ray tube (CRT) glass management; and
• shared consumer responsibility for the program through inclusion of a reasonable point-of-purchase fee dedicated to fund administration, enforcement, education and research/development but not the cost of recovery and processing, which would remain the responsibility of the OEMs, with retailers retaining a portion of the fee (3 cents is suggested) as compensation for their costs.

Questions concerning electronics recycling in the state should be directed through the Pennsylvania Recycling Markets Center to rbylone@pennrmc.org or by calling 717-948-6660.