Efforts across the country to reduce electronic waste in landfills are slowly accelerating, with British Columbia the latest province to put an e-waste management program on its environmental agenda. Environment Minister Barry Pen-ner announced last month an initiative to establish an industry-led recycling program for electronic waste.
According to a recent study by the Greater Vancouver regional district, e-waste on a per person basis has quadrupled, with an estimated 19,500 tonnes a year going into its landfills.
“About 70 per cent of materials in a computer can be recycled,” said Penner, “and not addressing that is a wasted opportunity.”
The province has been working with the electronics and computer industry to implement a stewardship program. The IT industry is in the process of developing a business proposal for the B.C. government and if approved, the program will be up and running by 2007.
Although the government initiated the recycling regulation, it expects the industry to fully operate and deliver the program. “That should reduce the amount of bureaucracy that government is responsible for,” he said.
Costs have yet to be determined but Penner would like to see the industry build the collection and recycling fee throughout the lifecycle of all products. “We’re asking them to be creative and come up with something they can collectively support.”
Industry-led programs
Earlier this year the government of Saskatchewan also introduced regulations requiring the development of an industry led and managed end of life stewardship program for computers, printers and televisions. Similar to the B.C. plan, Saskatchewan is relying on the industry to develop and execute the program entirely on its own while government monitors the outcome.
“Both the province and industry think this is the right approach,” said Joe Mul-doon, executive director of En-vironment Saskatchewan.
“Put government in the regulatory side of business from an outcomes perspective as opposed to prescriptive and let industry design, develop and deliver the program,” he added.
If the business plan is approved, Muldoon said the stewardship program will be running by early spring next year.
Unlike the Alberta Electronics Recycling Program launched last October, which has a government waste organization collecting revenues to support its program, Saskatchewan is telling the industry to look after its program.
“We don’t feel there’s a need for us to dictate how they’re going to do it,” said Muldoon.
“Industry has been quite responsive and we’re in the process of working out the details of the business plan.”
Moving eastward
Whether this momentum of regulatory e-waste programs will continue in other provinces is yet to be determined.
Ontario has the necessary authority in place with its Waste Diversion Act, according to David Betts, president of Electronics Product Stewardship Canada (EPS Canada), but with a newly-appointed environment minister in June, “we’re waiting for additional direction from the province before we can go any further.”
As a representative of the industry, EPS Canada has a mandate to address end-of-life stewardship programs as provincial governments begin to regulate e-waste management.
“The goal is if provinces do intend to move forward with regulations for e-waste management than we believe they need to be harmonized across the country to the greatest extent possible,” said Betts.
The difficulty is managing different programs in each province, he added, so EPS Canada is encouraging each government to adopt similar programs and include common costs, fees associated with products, compliance, enforcement measures and standards for recyclers.
According to Betts, government heavily regulates European programs in many countries, while the United States tends to favour voluntary programs run by industry.
“Canada’s somewhere in the middle,” he said. “What we’re looking for is an industry-led program with the help and support of government regulators.”
E-friendly players
One of the 18 founding members of EPS Canada, Hewlett-Packard (Canada), started its own Planet Partners program in 1991, long before the national electronic stewardship initiative.
The program has three legs: toner cartridge recycling, inkjet cartridge recycling and hardware recycling. “Worldwide we have a goal of a billion pounds (of recycled waste) by 2007 and we’re well over half way there,” said Frances Edmonds, director of environmental programs at HP Canada.
Designed namely for the end user, who can return empty toner cartridges to HP at no charge, Edmonds points out that tools are also provided to businesses and resellers that want to take advantage of bulk return opportunities.
“Resellers are a vital partner for us so we want them to be involved in doing something we think is important,” she said. “Environ-mental sustainability and leadership is a key issue for HP and we think Canadian consumers are interested as well.”
Edmonds said if governments are interested in putting a program in place, they need to ensure the end result is better than dumping the materials in a landfill by knowing where the waste is going and adopting end of life treatment standards.
Another EPS Canada member manufacturer is Lexmark Canada. Along with its cartridge collection program, the company is also responsible for environmentally managing used hardware.