EPA Programs for Electronics Stewardship

1
EPA Programs for Electronics Stewardship

• International Symposium on Electronics and the
  Environment
• Clare Lindsay, EPA
• Viccy Salazar, EPA

2
The Goal

• Electronic Products are designed and manufactured
  so they are
• Have lower impact on the environment,
• Contain fewer hazardous and toxic constituents,
  and
• Easier to reuse and recycle
• Increased market demand for greener electronic
  products
• There are convenient, low cost electronics reuse
  and recycling centers and
• Reuse and recycling centers are environmentally
  safe and robust markets exist for the materials.

3
The Big Picture on EPAs Electronics Sector Work
4
Plug-in to eCycling

• What is Plug-In to eCycling?
• A consumer electronics recycling outreach
  campaign that aims to increase the availability
  of safe electronics recycling.

5
Plug-In Partnerships
2. EPA fosters partnerships with manufacturers,
retailers and government organizations to Focus
more national attention on electronics recycling
option and give consumers more places
and opportunities to safely, conveniently and
affordably recycle old electronics
6
Environmentally Safe Management

• 3. EPA pilots guidance for environmentally safe
  management of EOL electronics and requires
  Plug-in partners to use this guidance.

7
Plug-In Partners Who are they and what do they
do?

• Some examples
• Manufacturers
• Retailers
• State and Local Governments
• Partners agree to host collection and outreach
• events, feature ecycling information on
• website and advertising information,
• document data collection, use recyclers
• that meet EPAs Safe recycling guidelines.

8
How Does EPA Support Partner Efforts?

• Recognizes partners at public events and in
  publications and outreach materials
• EPA officials mention partners on relevant news
  programs
• Highlights partners in press releases
• Provides technical assistance as needed for
  collection events

9
Upcoming Pilot Initiatives

• Staples New England Pilot in-store electronics
  takeback program with manufacturer and retailer
  financial support NO FEES
• Office Depot/Good Guys (CompUSA) Pacific
  Northwest Pilot ongoing in-store electronics
  takeback program (Office Depot-4 mo. Good Guys
  1 mo.) with manufacturer and retailer financial
  support. Consumer EOL fees
• Best Buy Minnesota Pilot strategic awareness
  raising of drop off service. Consumer EOL Fees
• Discussions about piloting TPO-like system in NW
• Already Staples Redmond, WA/ Portland, OR
• April 22-May 8 2004 takeback initiative.

10
Achievements and Next Steps

• Achievements
• Since the program was launched in Jan. 2003, EPA
  signed on 15 members in the manufacturing and
  retail sectors. More than 26.4 million pounds of
  electronics were collected by partners in the
  first 10 months of the program.
• Next Steps
• Continue recruiting private sector partners
• Continue to generate awareness in media and
  national events
• Improve outreach and awareness tools for local
  governments and private partners
• Launch national ecycling data collection
  mechanism
• Encourage widespread use of Plug-Ins Safe
  Recycling (ESM) Guidelines

11
(No Transcript)
12
What is the Federal Electronics Challenge (FEC)?

• The FEC is a purchasing, use, and end-of-life
  management challenge issued for federal
  facilities or agencies to
• 1. Purchase greener electronic products
• 2. Manage electronic assets in an environmentally
  sound manner
• 3. Receive assistance to improve current
  practices

13
Some quick facts

• Approximately 10,000 federally owned computers
  deemed excess or surplus each week
• FEC establishing ESM guidelines and audit process
  for Federal Agencies
• U.S. federal sector represents a significant
  market share for electronics
• FY 2003 IT budget 53 BILLION (Hardware
  Services)
• FY 2004 IT budget approximately 59 BILLION
  (Hardware Services), FY 2005 and beyond
  GROWING!
• Electronics represent serious environmental costs
  and opportunities for Federal Agencies
• Federal Agencies CARE and are looking toward the
  FEC for answers.
• See opportunities for cost savings and
  environmental gain
• Avoid potential liability

14
What electronics will the FEC address?

• Monitors (computers and TV)
• CPUs
• Copiers
• Laptops

• Keyboards
• LCD screens
• Printers
• Cell phones
• Other as determined by the facility

15
Timeline

• Pilot May 2003 - July 2004
• 9 Partner facilities
• Including GSA, EPA, DOI, NASA, BPA
• Partner Awards in October 2004
• National Program begins October 2004

16
Key Lessons From the Pilot

• Federal Agencies want to two basic pieces of
  information from the FEC
• Information on how to buy greener products
  (EPEAT, EPP Guidelines) and
• Clear direction on ESM and who can provide it
  (questionnaire for recyclers and audit process).
• Federal Agencies are willing to put their
  purchasing dollars into greener products and
  services

17
Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool
18
EPEAT

• To develop, build-on or adopt an assessment tool
  for electronic
• products and services and to actively
  disseminate said
• assessment tool.
• The tool should
• Promote continuous improvement
• Address the lifecycle
• Inform purchasing decisions by institutional
  purchasers
• Provide market advantage
• Be low cost, user friendly, and causes minimal
  delay in time to market
• Produces credible, verifiable outcomes
• Provides value in the marketplace

19
EPEAT Activities

• Developing the Structure
• Application and Approval
• Verification
• Scoring
• Label (or not?)
• Defining Attributes and criteria
• Selecting a host organization and defining its
  charge

20
EPEAT Timeline

• Develop the Tool
• November 2003 October 2004
• Hand over to a host organization
• Winter 2004/2005
• Piloting/Operationalizing Tool
• Winter 2005 Winter 2006
• Fully Operational
• Fall 2006

21
For More Information

• Plug-in to eCycling
• www.plugintoecycling.org
• Verena Radulovic, USEPA
• radulovic.verena_at_epa.gov, Tel [phone]
• Federal Electronics Challenge
• www.federalelectronicschallenge.net
• Sonia Kassambara, Office of the Federal
  Environmental Executive
• kassambara.sonia_at_epa.gov, Tel [phone]
• or
• Viccy Salazar, EPA Project Manger
• salazar.viccy_at_epa.gov, Tel [phone]
• EPEAT
• www.epeat.net
• Viccy Salazar, EPA Project Manger
• salazar.viccy_at_epa.gov, Tel [phone]
• or
• Larry Chalfan, Project Manager, Zero Waste
  Alliance