Proposal for ‘interim’ financing model for dealing with waste CE ...
Proposal for “interim” financing model for dealing with waste CE products emerged at last week’s meeting of National Electronics Product Stewardship (NEPSI) in Tampa, stakeholders said. Proposal that won backing of state and local govts. entails adoption of system…
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with end-of-life fees that would evolve into model financed by front-end fees, said Scott Cassel, dir. of Mass.-based Product Stewardship Institute. State and local govts. have advocated front-end model where cost of waste collection, management and recycling are included in price of CE product. Industry preferred model operating on end-of-life fees that govts. object to because it places undue burden on taxpayers. Stakeholders already had reached agreement to drop taxpayer or ratepayer and extended producer responsibility (mainly industry-financed) models from purview of deliberations. Speaking for govts., Cassel said they were prepared to back new proposal if there was certainty that system eventually would change into front-end financing. Proposal was also considered to have old electronic products covered by end-of-life fees and newer ones by front-end fees. Industry hasn’t taken position on those proposals, said Heather Bowman, EIA dir.-environmental affairs. They are possibilities that could be investigated, she said, and were intended “as a way to solve a complex problem.” Another important issue was Internet sales of products that was akin to online sales tax issue, Cassel said. It was vital to ensure that companies selling products over Internet adhere to financing system and collection programs that were being developed to avoid free riders, he said. Other issues that came up, Cassel said, included: (1) Developing shared responsibility system that was perceived as fair by all groups and was cost- effective. (2) Incentives for design and return of used products. (3) Free-rider problem. Stakeholder meeting was preceded by design workshop that for first time opened channel of communication between product design engineers and recyclers, he said. While top manufacturers, including IBM, Sharp, Panasonic, Phillips and Sony, were represented at meeting, retailers were conspicuous by their absence, Cassel said. Bowman said absence of retailers didn’t mean they weren’t engaged and they might have decided to keep away because of tight budgets.