Local leaders in New York Voiced Concerns for Electronic Waste Recycling

E-Waste Recycling Whose Responsibility?

A New York state legislature hearing in Albany very recently featured comments from several municipal officials who voiced that the 2010 “e-waste” law requires manufacturers to manage and fund programs to collect and recycle electronic waste in New York. But local officials said much of the cost and burden is falling on municipalities and has set up a system that is overburdening the taxpayers.

According to an AP article that appeared on the Washington Times website, many municipal officials voiced their concerns that while the intention of the law was for e-scrap recycling to be funded by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), but now “much of the cost and burden is falling on municipalities.”

A town supervisor and the executive director of an association representing Empire State counties were among those who said televisions and computer monitors with cathode ray tubes (CRTs) is causing great concerns because recyclers within the state will no longer accept those items without charging a fee.

Those testifying also decried the preset volume goals assigned to manufacturers, saying that once those goals are met, the OEMs scale back their collection activities and other support services, according to the AP report.
 

Stephen Acquario, executive director of the New York State Association of Counties, said experts at the time the law was drafted underestimated the volume of CRTs that would need recycling.

“This raises serious problems since the act only requires manufacturers to collect a certain volume of e-waste each year based on faulty estimates,” he said. “Once the goal is met, manufacturers have little incentive to pay e-waste recyclers for additional material.”

Acquario said Westchester County estimates it will have to pay $1.2 million for e-waste removal in 2016. Delaware County anticipates a cost of up to $90,000. Madison County’s annual expense for e-waste is about $33,000. Cattaraugus and Niagara counties each had e-waste program costs of $60,000 for 2015, Acquario said.

In the testimony before the New York State Assembly’s Environmental Conservation Committee, the Association of Counties director urged the creation of regulations “to require manufacturers to provide year-round support for collection sites regardless of whether their performance target has been met,” according to AP.