Producer Responsibility ‘On Trial’ in NYC E-Waste Lawsuit, NRDC Says
The Natural Resources Defense Council’s “long and deep” history with New York City’s e-waste law was the main reason the group intervened as a co-defendant in the lawsuit brought against the city by CEA and the ITI Council, senior NRDC attorney Kate Sinding said in a blog at her group’s website. NRDC also got involved “to ensure that New York City’s takeback law survived industry’s attack,” she said.
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CEA and ITI have defended their lawsuit as a challenge to “the unique and extraordinary burdens of the New York City program, not about the larger issue of producer responsibility” (CED Jan 19 p2). Their gripes are New York City-specific, the groups have said, denying green groups’ allegations that they plan, if they prevail in the New York City case, to sue stop producer responsibility in states that have strong e-waste laws on the books.
NRDC helped draft the original New York City bill “and worked closely with its sponsors and other policy makers to make it as strong and effective a law as we could,” Sinding said. “We were a leading advocate for the bill’s passage, putting together an impressive coalition of supporters representing not only the environmental community, but also recyclers, retailers and some manufacturers, which helped push it over the finish line. So we felt we had a strong organizational stake in seeing the law upheld.”
NRDC also deems it critically important “to defend this one law” because the CEA and ITI complaint “is so broadly drafted that -- if successful -- it would put every takeback law in the nation at risk,” she said. “The manufacturers claim that they don’t object to producer responsibility generally (and are happily complying with the e-waste laws in 19 other states), and that their only beef is with the city’s law -- which they contend is more onerous than any other law. But their five constitutional challenges … don’t just attack the city law. They attack the fundamental principles embodied in producer responsibility.”
Because CE makers object to the direct collection requirement in the rules, “they have filed a lawsuit that could bring down the whole takeback movement,” Sinding said. “Make no mistake: this is producer responsibility on trial.” NRDC is “confident” that all producer responsibility-based e- waste laws, including New York City’s, are constitutional, Sinding said. “And we look forward to our opportunity to argue our case to the judge” when oral argument is held Feb. 10, she said. But in the meantime, “New Yorkers continue to be deprived of a citywide e-waste recycling program,” she said. “We desperately need a comprehensive e-waste law that will give all New Yorkers access to a free, convenient method for getting rid of their accumulating stockpiles of unwanted electronics.”