Washblog

Mo McBroom of the WEC highlighted the problem: over 1.5 million pieces of electronic equipment has no home, and is currently being dumped in landfills. Many of these products contain toxic chemicals in them that can reach our groundwater.

Radio Shack sent a representative to speak in support of HB 2662, mentioning that they voluntarily recycle cell phones and batteries already, but believe that this bill is the most responsible and comprehensive bill in the country.

Radio Shack believes that imbedding the cost into the product will reduce the cost of the composition of the electronic product, thereby providing the incentive to manufacture electronic devices more recycle-friendly.  

Larry King of Hewlett Packard supports HB 2662 - the system that will be created by this bill will be market-based instead of government intervention. The design of electronic products will improve and become more cost effective.

Rep. Eickmeyer asks if printers and fax machines are being included, which they are not. The bill is limited in its current form to not include printers and fax machines in the definition of computers.

David Thompson of Panasonic opposes the bill, and would endorse a recycling program that applies a consumer tax instead, which would absolve Panasonic from any responsibility for the cost of recycling their electronic products.

Sony's representative also opposes HB2662 despite attending the stakeholders meetings. Does not believe it is an environmental problem. Says they believe in 'shared responsibility', but doesn't want to take any.

Sharp sent a representative from Camas, and opposes the bill - claiming it is not cost effective, but never really explained how.

Another Panasonic rep mentions that they will no longer be able to do business in America anymore because of this bill? Wow.

Bill Smith from the City of Tacoma testifies in favor, mentions that there is no leadership on this subject coming from the federal level. The advent of HDTV will bring a large amount of old components to waste facilities. The options in collection help foster a public-private cooperative in the recycling process.

A representative of Goodwill Industries spoke of the problem of Goodwill’s cost of having to recycle old electronic equipment that gets dropped off (over 142 tons), which takes away from their funding of Goodwill’s job training programs, along with other non-profits problems with having to pay for the cost of disposal. Mentions how people do not want to pay to get rid of electronics and will dump them instead of proper disposal.

Rep. Buck and Chandler chime in – saying that the cost of doing business should fall on the consumer and not the manufacturer. We will never be able to get the manufacturer to pay for recycling. Woe is the manufacturer!

Nice retort – electronic products that have components that cannot be accepted in landfills (pretty much all), then have an end-of-life cost that should be built into it. The consumer always pays.

Craig from Total Reclaim testified in favor of HB2662 – Total Reclaim is a processor of electronic waste and recycling, and is concerned about how the bill would force the flow of recycling equipment into a small group and potentially hurt his business.