Computer TakeBack Campaign (CTBC)

WCRC is a participant in the Computer TakeBack Campaign. 

WCRC supports the Computer TakeBack Campaign’s actions to develop and promote producer responsibility policy, as well as to apply market pressure to computer manufacturers to solve the e-waste crisis.

WCRC is spreading the word about producer responsibility through the newsletter (Waste Not), A Citizen’s Guide to Producer Responsibility, and media releases. WCRC has recently made presentations on electronics and producer responsibility at various gatherings, including the Washington State Recycling Association Conference, the Northwest Hazardous Waste Conference, and a state meeting of WRRA/SWANA.

WCRC is also working to develop a strong producer responsibility coalition in Washington state. Stakeholders—environmental and public health groups, governments, schools, labor unions, charities, recyclers, businesses, and citizen activists—will be brought together in 2003 and 2004 to discuss the issues and consider ways to move toward statewide producer responsibility.

WCRC will also continue education and outreach efforts relating to electronics producer responsibility legislation introduced in Washington in February 2003, and scheduled for consideration in the 2004 legislative session. Model electronics legislation developed and advanced by the Computer TakeBack Campaign helped facilitate the introduction of e-waste legislation with strong producer responsibility provisions in 10 states, including Washington.

More about the Computer TakeBack Campaign

The Computer TakeBack Campaign (coordinated by GrassRoots Recycling Network and Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition) was formed to promote clean design and brand owner responsibility for discarded computers and electronics. The goal is to protect the health and well being of electronics users, workers, and the communities where electronics are produced and discarded by requiring consumer electronics manufacturers and brand owners to take full responsibility for the life cycle of their products, through effective public policy requirements or enforceable agreements. This goal will be accomplished through extended producer responsibility (EPR), a policy tool used to promote sustainable production and consumption of consumer electronics. 

There are three essential principals to the Computer TakeBack Campaign: 1) Take it Back, 2) Make it Clean, and 3) Recycle Responsibly. 

These principals are summarized as follows:

Take it Back

• Producer Responsibility: Hold manufacturers/brand owners responsible for meeting specific goals for electronics recovery, reuse, and recycled content that are at least as stringent as goals adopted by the European Union, providing manufacturers with an incentive to finance the development of a convenient and effective collection, disassembly, reuse and recycling infrastructure.
  

• Taxpayer Relief: Shift financial responsibility and potential liability off of taxpayer-funded collection, management and disposal programs that are already overburdened and under-funded. In the short-term, in areas where no other collection opportunity exists, local programs should be authorized to charge-back manufacturers for the costs of managing their electronic devices.

Make it Clean

• Toxics Use Reduction: Require manufacturers of consumer electronic devices to meet specific reduction goals and implement programs at least as stringent as those adopted by the European Union to phase down - and where feasible -  phase out the use of hazardous materials in their products.

  Recycle Responsibly

• Market Based Incentives: Require manufacturers to pay the net cost of collecting and recycling electronic devices (or the cost of proper management and disposal for devices that are not recyclable), providing manufacturers with an incentive to design products for recyclability, to develop markets for recycling, and to support public education about how consumers can manage electronics at the end of their useful lives.

• Right to Know: Require manufacturers to disclose publicly all hazardous substances, and proper techniques for managing them by consumers and recyclers, through clear labels on devices and all their hazardous components.
  

• Performance Standards: Establish meaningful and verifiable performance standards for electronics recycling companies, specifying responsible management practices, including bans on landfilling, incinerating or exporting electronic waste.
  

• Community Economic Development: Ensure that the recycling infrastructure promotes community economic development, including safe jobs at living wage.

The Campaign has produced the 2005 Computer Report Card. Visit that website to see which manufactures are leaders and which are laggards in taking electronics back, making electronics clean, and recycling electronic responsibly.

Other participants in the CTBC are: 

    As You Sow Foundation www.asyousow.org
    Basel Action Network (in Washington State) www.ban.org
    Californians Against Waste www.cawrecycles.org
    Clean Production Network
    Clean Water Action www.cleanwateraction.org
    Communication Workers of America www.cwa-union.org
    Friends of the Earth, U.S. www.foe.org
    INFORM www.informinc.org
    Institute for Local Self-Reliance www.ilsr.org
    Materials for the Future Foundation http://www.nsc.org/ehc/epr2/davis/wkspdavs.htm
    Mercury Policy Project www.mercurypolicy.org
    Texas Campaign for the Environment www.texasenvironment.org

Back to WCRC's Producer Responsibility Campaign

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