Electronics Recycling A Hit With New England Consumers, Retailers
Owners of obsolete electronics equipment brought tons of unwanted computer equipment in for recycling when offered the opportunity to do so last summer. The federal agency, retailer and nongovernmental organization that cooperated to make the program possible are declaring it a success.
The pilot program, a collaboration between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Staples, Inc., and the Product Stewardship Institute, Inc. was held inthe summer of 2004, but the analysis of results was completed only this month.
The program sought to determine if a major retailer such as Staples could provide recycling services for unwanted electronic equipment, known as eWaste, to its retail and commercial customers within the company’s existing distribution infrastructure.
The project collected unwanted electronic equipment sold by Staples–laptops, computer processing units, monitors, printers, fax machines, and small peripheral devices–from both retail and commercial customers, and provided recycling services using “reverse logistics” via Staples’ delivery trucks and its existing product distribution network.
“The successful “eCycling” pilot shows that consumers and businesses will respond, if given the chance to recycle consumer electronics,” said Robert Varney, regional administrator of EPA’s New England office. “By creating new opportunities to reuse and recycle items like old computers, monitors and printers, we can keep these devices from ending up in landfills.”
The pilot was conducted with the help of a $46,000 EPA grant. Analysis of the pilot indicates that eCycling was cost effective, and was well received by consumers and Staples.
The Boston-based Product Stewardship Institute (PSI), a national non-profit organization that promotes sustainable resource use, managed the grant. PSI designed and implemented the project along with Staples to test whether computer recycling could be consistent with Staples’ business model.
“This pilot project shows without a doubt that retailers and manufacturers can work with their customers to recycle computer equipment in an environmentally responsible and cost effective manner,” said PSI Executive Director Scott Cassel. “This is a model that works, saves resources, and can ultimately be expanded to other product areas.”
The partners recognized that retailers may want to charge nominal user fees to offset the collection and recycling costs. High transportation costs are one of the barriers for providing cost-efficient eCycling services.
The pilots collected and recycled a total of 57 tons of eWaste over the course of the project. In one program, Staples collected electronic equipment from retail customers at 27 Staples retail stores in five states–Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island–over a six week period.
In a second program, Staples collected electronic equipment from 14 existing commercial customers in three states–Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire–who typically receive direct delivery of products at their place of business. This pilot tested the “reverse logistics” transportation model using Staples’ product delivery networks. The collected equipment was back-hauled by delivery carriers, consolidated at distribution and fulfillment centers, then transported to Envirocycle, an electronics recycler located in Hallstead, Pennsylvania.
The pilots illustrate the growing need and opportunity to expand collections of electronic waste, both at retail stores and commercial customer locations in New England and nationwide.
EPA is continuing to spur private and public sector partnerships under its “Plug-in To eCycling” program, which promotes shared responsibility for safe electronics recycling.
Since 2003, the Plug-in To eCycling program has attracted 21 partners from the manufacturing and consumer retail sectors, and 26 partners from various local and state government agencies.
In addition to Staples, partners include Apple Computers, Best Buy, Dell Computers, Office Depot and Sony. In the first two years of the program, over 45 million pounds of old electronics have been recycled.
More information on Plug-in To eCycling is at: http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/osw/conserve/plugin/index.htm. More information on eCycling in New England, including state-specific information, is available at: http://www.epa.gov/ne/solidwaste/electronic/index.html. More information on last summer’s pilots in New England is available at: http://www.productstewardship.us/pilot_takeback_staples.html.
Provided by the Environmental News Service.
