The e-Stewards Electronic Recycling Certification (ERC) will use GPS to confirm that recyclers do not export hazardous e-waste.
In a press release, the company – which is the “gold standard for socially and environmentally responsible electronics recycling” – announced that they will be “making regular use of” GPS devices to make sure that certified e-Steward recyclers are performing correctly. The devices are placed into electronic equipment and tracked to their destination.
The ERC programme “was created by the environmental organisation Basel Action Network (BAN)”, who along with leaders in industry and occupational health as well as data security experts work together in the US to comply with international agreements banning the export of dangerous and toxic e-waste. It was developed after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) failed to meet the terms of international trade rules put in place to protect developing countries.
BAN’S e-Trash Transparency Project revealed shocking disclosures, and its recent report “Scam Recycling” found that 40 percent of the “toxic monitors and printers it delivered to US electronic recyclers” were being exported to “developing countries”, and because of this exposure it was decided that electronic trackers should be used. E-waste that ends up in developing countries results in “illegal trade”, and by using the GPS trackers BAN established that much of the US e-waste was ending up in a “little known area of Hong Kong, known as New Territories”, exposing not only the soil and environment but also the workers to mercury and toner dust.
Of the documented exports that were found to be exporting the waste, most were found to be “R2 certified or uncertified recyclers”, and one e-Steward Certified Recycler from Seattle was caught out as cheating on the e-Steward Standard, causing immediate “withdrawal” of its certification and the “decision to further enhance enforcement of the gold standard by making routine use of trackers”
Sarah Westervelt, Policy Director of the e-Stewards programme, said: “Sadly, once the auditor is gone, it is far too easy for unscrupulous recyclers to fill containers and ship hazardous e-waste to developing countries in contravention of international law. But e-Stewards recyclers want to be ‘caught doing the right thing’. At our recent recycler meeting, they unanimously endorsed the idea of the ongoing use of trackers.”
The new technology has been praised by an industry leader, and an editorial in e-Scrap News had a quote from Henri Pierre Salle, the former President of the Independent Association of Accredited Registrars (IAAR), who said: “The end users/customers of any industry-specific scheme should expect and demand measurement of outcomes. Committed scheme owners must be prepared to take measures to prove the implied or promised outcome of its requirements. In my opinion, the Basel Action Network’s (BAN) e-Stewards Certification Programme comes closest to proving the outcome of proper final e-waste disposal.”
The “e-Stewards Certification is now the only electronics recycling certification in the world that utilises GPS tracking technology to verify performance”.