Recycling Electronics in New York City

By Pucong Han
Columbia Journalism School
Reporter at People’s Daily Online

“Typically what happens to electronic waste is it ends up in landfills or is shipped to third world countries,” said Macaulay Campbell, a volunteer at the Lower East Side Ecology Center. “People don’t deal with electronic waste in environmentally friendly ways.”

In 2011, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a report on selected electronic products. Most of them were either dumped in landfills or shipped abroad. The Natural Resource Defense Council reported that in New York City alone, over 25,000 pounds of electronics are landfilled or incinerated each year. Only 25 percent of the 2.37 million tons of end-of-life electronic products in the U.S. were collected for recycling.

In 2009, Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) TVs and monitors comprised, by weight, nearly half of the electronics that entered the waste stream, according to an EPA 2011 report. CRTs are recognized as one of the most significant environmental health threats to humans. “Monitors and TVs have a lot of glass and can contain 2kg of lead. The flat screen monitors are more energy efficient, but they have mercury in them,” said Christine Datz-Romero, Executive Director of the Lower East Side Ecology Center. “These heavy metals in electronics need to be handled correctly.” They cannot be disposed of in ordinary waste landfills, but recycling companies can export them abroad.

According to GrowNYC, a non-profit organization whose mission is to improve New York City’s quality of life through environmental programs, “allthough they are a small portion of the waste stream by volume, computers and electronics contribute about 70 percent of the heavy metals in landfills.” The EPA states that 40 percent of the lead found in landfills can be attributed to these discarded electronics.

“We have a moral imperative. We use these electronics…they have added a lot of heavy metals and toxic materials into our waste stream,” said Datz-Romero. “It is very important for us to take responsibility for these technologies.”

Recycling electronics, such as cell phones, televisions, and computers (along with rechargeable batteries) keeps potentially harmful materials out of the waste stream and the environment. In New York City, a combination of local and state laws dictates the handling or recycling electronics and harmful materials.

The New York State Electronic Equipment Recycling and Reuse Act was signed into law on May 28, 2010. “New York has become the 23rd state to have e-waste legislation,” said Datz-Romero. “The law requires both manufacturers and retailers to offer free programs to make electronic recycling accessible to people in New York State.”

According to the Act, violators are liable for a civil penalty for each violation not to exceed $1,000 for the first violation, $2,500 for the second violation and $5,000 for the third and subsequent violations. The new rules were to be introduced in two steps.

The first ban, which began on April 1, 2011, said that “no manufacturer, retailer, or owner or operator of an electronic waste collection site, electronic waste consolidation facility or electronic waste recycling facility in the state shall dispose of electronic waste at a solid waste management facility or hazardous waste management facility.”
Steve Leone, the President of Brooklyn e-recycling handler eRecycleNY, said, “Commercial businesses are prohibited from placing electronic wastes in the trash.” eRecycleNY focuses on recycling computer electronics in New York City. “The new law focuses on the commercial sector because that’s where most computers are being used and most electronic waste is being generated.”

“Some businesses, such as big financial firms, who have sustainability programs hire a team of people to work on minimizing problems caused by their waste electronics,” said Leone. Cell phone companies, such as Verizon and AT&T, have introduced programs to recycle old phones and used batteries.

Verizon introduced HopeLine, its recycle program, in 1995. According to a Verizon press release, “Old wireless phone batteries, chargers and accessories are collected. Unused phones are refurbished and sold for reuse.” In September 2011, Verizon Wireless also introduced a new trade-in program, which provides customers who trade in old phones $100 gift cards towards the purchase of new phones.

AT&T has similar programs, such as the AT&T Reuse and Recycle Program. According to AT&T, “Customers are invited to bring back unwanted wireless phones, smart phones, accessories and batteries.”

Craig Boswell, president of HOBI International and an AT&T Recycling Vendor, said, “When we receive a phone, the first part for us is to see if we can reuse that phone.” Boswell’s company erases the data, and if the phone is in good working condition, they are re-sold. According to the Sustainability Program Office at AT&T, recyclers sell most of the used devices to secondary overseas markets where the phones are given another life.

“If we can’t use the phone as a whole phone,” said Boswell, “we’ll de-manufacture and take its parts. Then we’ll see which parts can be reused. Finally, what’s left will be recycled. We’ll recover the materials, such as the plastic, the metal and the copper.” AT&T suppliers are required to meet the EU WEEE Standard. Under this standard, 65 percent weight of the phone has to be recycled. Mike Moss, Director of Environmental Affairs at Samsung, said, “These materials will go back to products that we use everyday, such as cell phones, PCs and tablets.”

Although cell phone companies have introduced recycling programs, not many consumers recycle their cell phones or bring them back to retail stores because they don’t know about these programs or they don’t have times to go to the stores. People tend to dump small electronics, such as cell phones, into the trash. According to the report from the EPA, there were 141 million mobile devices, more than any other type of product, which were discarded in 2009. Only 11.7 million of these (eight percent of total end-of-life mobile devices) were collected for recycling. The rest, 129 million in all, were disposed of in landfills or shipped to other countries.

High tech companies, such as Cisco, also have programs to recycle electronics. “Cisco has two trade-in programs we offer to our customers,” said Gideon Schroeder, Recycling Program Manager for the Americas at Cisco Systems. If the customer is upgrading its networks and the equipment being replaced is fairly new, Cisco offers the customer a trade-in for the equipment. The customer can get an additional discount for returning its old equipment to Cisco.

Schroeder said, “much of the trade-in equipment is given another life by being refurbished and reused.” Customers can also recycle their electronics through the TakeBack & Recycle (TB&R) program.

“TB&R ships the materials straight to recyclers. This material is de-manufactured, sorted, shredded, sorted again into the fraction commodities that make up the products,” said Schroeder. “The fraction commodities yielded from the recycling process include steel, aluminum, copper, cardboard, plastic, wire/cable, and shredded printed circuit boards.” All these fractions go to downstream recyclers to be made into new products again.

Only a very small percentage of NYC firms recycle, and according to Leone, many throw their computers in the garbage. Most commonly, when businesses have computers to throw away, they call either a garbage removal company or a building management company. “Regardless of which one you call, your computers might end up in the trash,” said Leone.

The article has been published at http://english.people.com.cn/90777/7721348.html