Santa Clara County Cracks Down on E-Waste
Santa Clara County recently passed a law that will require all e-waste produced in the region to be recycled by a certified recycler.
This will be the first area in the United States to agree to a move like this, though Congress is investigating a bill to prevent e-waste from being shipped to developing nations.
Jim Puckett, director and founder of the Basal Action Network, said: “Sadly not all of those companies that call themselves responsible recyclers are truly responsible and many are not recyclers at all, but are just exporters… We have been to the techno-trash dumping grounds of Africa and Asia and seen the children being poisoned. This is why we created the Certification in the first place. We are extremely gratified that local governments like Santa Clara are making good use of this tool to screen out the unscrupulous and award only those businesses that will do the right thing.”
Companies export e-waste to developing nations mainly for financial reasons. It is approximately 10 times cheaper for recyclers to export e-waste to China than it is to recycle it responsibly. Companies that are certified, never export electronics overseas for processing, never use prison labor, never send electronics to landfills, and follow all guidelines.
We’re thrilled to see Santa Clara County take this initiative and hope that the rest of the United States follows soon.
What do you think about this law? Would you like to see other areas pass something similar?