Basel Action Network, CEA Spar Over Improper E-Waste Exports
It was just through an “oversight” that CEA, in a Dec. 23 consumer advisory, failed to mention the Basel Action Network’s e-Stewards program among a list of resources the public can use to properly dispose of old electronics, Parker Brugge, CEA vice president of environmental affairs and industry sustainability, told us in an e-mail. CEA continues to list BAN’s activities elsewhere on the environmental portions of its website, Brugge said.
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Five days after the CEA advisory, BAN put out its own holiday bulletin warning consumers not to be duped into disposing of old electronics through unscrupulous recyclers that export the waste to developing countries. Though the BAN advisory didn’t mention CEA by name, it urged consumers to use only those recyclers that BAN has certified through the e-Stewards program.
In an e-mail Wednesday, BAN Executive Director Jim Puckett suggested that CEA’s failure to list BAN among its list of responsible recycling resources was no accident. BAN strives for closer cooperation with CEA on banning e-waste exports, and it’s not through BAN’s lack of trying that it and CEA don’t see eye to eye on the issue, Puckett told us. “CEA continues to support exporting electronic waste,” he said. “The lists they have sent consumers to are full of companies that export hazardous e-waste to developing countries.”
Puckett’s allegation drew a sharp rebuke from Brugge, who told us that CEA “supports the recycling of electronics as long as it is done responsibly and safely, regardless of where it takes place.” As for exporting e-waste to developing countries, “our position is that we should have a national electronics recycling law which includes reasonable restrictions on the export of hazardous e-waste,” Brugge said. “In other words, if the product still has a useful purpose and would benefit a community, a school, a person somewhere else in the world, then we should allow for the movement of that product so that the useful purpose can be served. That being said, when the product truly reaches its end of life, it needs to be recycled safely and appropriately.” CEA’s website guides consumers “on how to ask the appropriate questions to ensure that their electronics recycler is conducting business responsibly,” Brugge said.
CEA has “not been made aware of any instances in which recyclers currently listed in our database have exported hazardous waste to developing countries, and would promptly remove any organization proven to have engaged in such practices,” Brugge said. CEA has invited the Electronics Takeback Coalition to call CEA out on any unscrupulous recyclers listed on the CEA website, but to date, the coalition hasn’t done so, Brugge said. “We extend the same invitation to BAN.” BAN and the coalition didn’t respond right away for comment on Brugge’s invitation.