Certification Sought

In the last two years, a number of electronics recycling companies have announced that they have been certified by a third party to standards developed specifically for the industry: Responsible Recycling Practices (R2) or e-Stewards.

E-Stewards, developed by the Basel Action Network (BAN), Seattle, requires ISO 14001 environmental management system certification. R2, however, does not require certification to a separate environmental management system.

While not required, R2 can be combined with the Recycling Industry Operating Standard (RIOS), developed by the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc. (ISRI), Washington, D.C., to produce the designation R2/RIOS Certified Electronics Recycler. The R2 standard was developed by a multistakeholder group convened by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, while RIOS is a quality, environmental and health and safety standard designed specifically for the recycling industry.

These standards seek to provide clients of electronics recycling firms with assurances that the companies handling their devices are meeting a certain level of performance when it comes to environmental, health and safety practices. These certifications also seek to assure organizations that their electronic devices will be properly safeguarded until the data they contain can be properly destroyed.

The National Association for Information Destruction (NAID), Phoenix, offers a certification designed for operations that sanitize hard drives for reuse. The NAID Certification of Sanitization Operations uses a network of independent, ASIS International-accredited security professionals to conduct audits.

The following list presents firms in the U.S., Canada and Mexico that have been certified or are undergoing certification to these standards as of mid-August 2012. The map below illustrates the certified electronics recycling companies in the U.S.
 

Click here to view the list of firms in the U.S., Canada and Mexico that have been certified or are undergoing certification to these standards as of mid-August 2012.