The "Electronic Recycler's Pledge of True Stewardship", insures that electronic waste is disposed properly. Those companies that sign the pledge agree to:
· prevent
hazardous e-waste from going to municipal incinerators or landfills;
· prevent the export of hazardous e-waste to developing countries;
· use free-market rather than prison labor to dismantle or recycle e-waste.
Companies that have signed the pledge can be found at: http://www.ban.org/pledge/Locations.html
(The full text of the Pledge:)
WE,
THE UNDERSIGNED RECYCLING COMPANIES,
agree to uphold the following as a pledge of true
stewardship
of electronic wastes:
I. We will not allow any hazardous E-waste* we handle to be sent
to solid waste (non-hazardous waste)
landfills or incinerators for disposal or energy recovery, either directly
or through intermediaries.
II. Consistent with decisions of the international Basel Convention
on the Control of Transboundary
Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, we will not allow
the export of hazardous E-waste we
handle to be exported from developed to developing countries** either
directly or through intermediaries.
III. We will not allow any E-waste we handle to be sent to prisons
for recycling either directly or through
intermediaries.
IV. We assure that we have a certified, or otherwise comprehensive
and comparable “environmental
management system” in place and our operation meets best practices.
V. We commit to ensuring that the entire recycling chain, including
downstream intermediaries and recovery
operations such as smelters, are meeting all applicable environmental
and health regulations. Every effort
will be made to only make use of those facilities (e.g. smelters),
which provide the most efficient and least
polluting recovery services available globally.
VI. We agree to provide visible tracking of hazardous E-Waste throughout
the product recycling chain. The
tracking information should show the final disposition of all hazardous
waste materials. If there is a concern
about trade secrets, an independent auditor acceptable to parties concerned
can be used to verify compliance
with this pledge.
VII. We agree to provide adequate assurance (e.g. bonds) to cover environmental
and other costs of the closure
of our facility, and additionally to provide liability insurance for
accidents and incidents involving wastes
under our control and ownership. Additionally we will ensure due diligence
throughout the product chain.
VIII. We agree to support Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) programs
and/or legislation in order to
develop viable financing mechanisms for end-of-life that provides that
all legitimate electronic recycling
companies have a stake in the process.
IX. We further agree to support design for environment and toxics use
reduction programs and/or legislation
for electronic products.
* Following the basic definitions of the Basel Convention, “hazardous
electronic waste” will for the purposes of this
pledge include circuit boards, CRTs as well as computers, monitors,
peripherals, and other electronics containing circuit boards and/or
CRTs. It will
also include mercury and PCB containing components, lamps and devices.
The
definition of “hazardous electronic waste” will not include
non-hazardous wastes such as copper unless it is contaminated with a Basel
hazardous waste such as lead, cadmium, PCBs, mercury etc. The definition
of “hazardous electronic waste” includes non-working materials
exported for repair unless assurances exist that hazardous components
(such as CRTs or circuit boards) will
not be disposed of in the importing country as a result. The definition
of “hazardous electronic waste” does not include working
equipment and parts that are certified as working, that are not intended
for disposal
or recycling, but for re-use and resale.
** Following the definitions of the Basel Convention and its Basel
Ban Amendment, developing countries are any country not belonging to
either
the European Union, the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development
(OECD) or Liechtenstein. For a complete list of OECD countries see http://www.ban.org/country_status/country_status.html and
find countries shaded in gray.
See the Basel Action Network Pledge page for more information: http://ban.org/#Pledge
