Sen. Whitehouse Introduces Bill to Limit Exports of IT Products for Recycling

March 6, 2014. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) introduced S 2090 [LOC | WW], the "Responsible Electronics Recycling Act", a bill to limit export of "electronic waste". While there is an environmental protection argument to be made in support of this bill, this bill is largely a trade protectionism bill masquerading as environmental protection.

This bill is substantially identical to HR 2791 [LOC | WW], introduced in the House by Rep. Gene Green (D-TX) on July 23, 2013.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has long held broad authority to identify and regulate the disposal of all "hazardous waste" in the US, under the Solid Waste Disposal Act (SWDA), which is codified at 42 U.S.C. 6921 et seq.

These bills would add a new section to the SWDA that would prohibit, and criminalize, the export of "restricted electronic waste" (REW) to non-OECD nations.

However, these bills do not define the term "electronic waste" or "waste". Rep. Green explained in his release that it means "Discarded computers, TVs, phones and other consumer electronics".

These bills provide that REW includes "covered electronic equipment" (CEW). CEW in turn is defined to include most of the physical products of the information technology and consumer electronics sectors for which there is a recycling market.

For example, the term CEW covers "Computers", "Central processing units", "notebooks, netbooks, tablets, and e-book readers", "Computer accessories (including input devices, webcams, speakers, data storage devices, servers, and monitors)". (Parentheses in original.)

CEW also includes "Televisions", "DVD players", "Video display devices", "Digital imaging devices (including printers, copiers, facsimile machines, image scanners, and multifunction machines), "Television peripheral devices iincluding video cassette recorders, DVD players, video game systems, game controllers, signal converter boxes, and cable and satellite receivers)" (Parentheses in original.)

This list continues: "Digital cameras", "Digital audio players" "Telephones and electronic communication equipment (including cellular phones and wireless Internet communication devices), "Networking devices (including routers, network cards, modems, and hubs), "Audio equipment", "Portable video game systems", and more.

The list also includes anything else that the EPA might decide to add.

Rep. Green explained the purpose of this legislation when he introduced his bill. His release states that "While there are domestic recyclers that currently process e-waste, they have a hard time competing with overseas recycling facilities".

Moreover, "restrictions on e-waste exports could create up to 42,000 new direct and indirect jobs with a total payroll of more than $1 billion."

The Coalition For American Electronics Recyclers (CAER) supports these bills. Its membership consists largely of US based recycling companies that would benefit from exclusion of its foreign competitors.

Rep. Green's second argument in support of these bills is that US recyclers adhere to higher environmental standards than their foreign competitors.

The Senate bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (SCEPW). The House bill was referred to the House Commerce Committee (HCC), the House Science Committee (HSC), and various of their subcommittees, none of which have taken any action.

Rare Earth Materials. These bills also contain a section pertaining to the supply in the US of critical minerals and rare earth elements.

These bills provide that the Department of Energy "shall assist in ... research in the recovering and recycling of critical minerals and rare earth elements found in electronic devices", and "shall establish a competitive research application program". Notably, these bills contain no authorization for appropriations.

Rare earth materials (REMs) are used in many ICT products. Rare earth elements exist in large quantifies in deposits in many countries. However, the People's Republic of China (PRC) mines and extracts almost all of the world's supply.

The House passed a bill last September that would have the effect of facilitating domestic mining and extraction of REMs, and deprive the PRC of the ability to abuse its dominant position in REM production. See, HR 761 [LOC | WW], the "National Strategic and Critical Minerals Production Act of 2013", and story titled "House Passes Rare Earths Bill" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,604, September 24 2013.

The Senate has taken no action of that bill, and is not likely to take action in the current Congress. President Obama did not mention the REM issue in his state of the union address in January.

(Published in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,633, March 12, 2014.)