The fight continues to pass e-waste export reforms embodied in the Secure E-waste Export and Recycling Act (SEERA). This legislation will promote responsible, domestic recycling to help stop the flow of toxic exports from the U.S. that are harming the environment and workers in developing countries. SEERA passed the U.S. House of Representatives last summer, and the Coalition for American Electronics Recycling (CAER) is working to secure passage as part of omnibus legislation by the end of the year. You can help by contacting your Congressional representatives – click here for resources to make it easy. For more information, check out this recent op-ed by Bob Houghton, CEO of Sage Sustainable Electronics and a founding supporter of e-Stewards, or access a new FAQ.

On October 13 & 14 in Seattle, our illustrious e-Stewards Leadership Council met for its 25th meeting, in person for the first time since 2019. Attended by stakeholders from across the industry, the two-day gathering was invigorated by our members’ varied perspectives, each adding their expertise to further the e-Stewards mission and goals. Established in 2010 with 19 seats, it has grown to 26 seats plus active alumni.

The 2022 Leadership Council and e-Stewards staff in Pioneer Square in downtown Seattle, WA.

Leadership Council members Kevin Webb of Mitsubishi Electric and Tom Delahunty of Wisetek share a beer with BAN Founder Jim Puckett on the ferry to dinner on Bainbridge Island after the first day of the Leadership Council meeting.  

e-Stewards has several new Leadership Council members, who we will introduce to you two at a time in each upcoming newsletter. John Kirsch replaces a representative from his company, 4THBIN, where he serves as the managing partner. A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, John has worked in technology for over two decades with diverse roles ranging from Director of IT at Addison to senior technical consultancy roles at Control Group (Intersection/Sidewalk Labs) and Valiant Technology – successfully helping build their customer base and brands. In 2009, John co-founded 4THBIN, a recognized leader in electronic recycling and data security based in Brooklyn, New York. John and his wife Mina reside with their children in Flatbush, Brooklyn.

Michael Leiberman, President of Aeris Protective Packaging Inc., joins the Leadership Council as a new representative in the Enterprise category. He is responsible for the design and engineering side of the business and focuses on Aeris’ role in developing protective packaging solutions for OEMs, repair centers, warranty providers, and retailers. Reducing packaging sizes and product breakage before it happens is one of Michael’s passions.

If you are interested in joining the Leadership Council, there will be one open seat in January for recyclers and two open seats for both Enterprises and NGOs. Further, our Social Impact Committee is open to non-LC members (with approval). If you are interested in any of these opportunities, please contact Selena Turnock at selena@e-stewards.org for more information.

Three new processors have become e-Stewards certified since the last newsletter. Regency Technologies, headquartered in Stow, OH, provides a means for safe, secure reuse and recycling of waste electric and electronic equipment (WEEE) while providing investment recovery for businesses to maximize the management of their IT assets through IT Asset Disposition. Techno Rescue, a Veteran-Owned company, has been operating since 2006 and is based in Frederick, MD. Electronic Responsible Recyclers (ER2) specializes in innovative technology and lifecycle solutions with locations across the country. With these three new companies, the e-Stewards’ reach will expand with 17 facilities added in the United States, including new sites in Tennessee, Iowa, and Maryland. 

The e-Stewards team is happy to welcome two new staff members. Selena Turnock joins e-Stewards as Acting e-Stewards Certification Director while Prema George is on leave. Selena is an Environmental, Health, Safety, and Compliance professional with over eight years of experience in the e-scrap and recycling industry. As her previous role was within an e-Stewards certified organization, she is accustomed to working with the e-Stewards Standard from the recycler standpoint and hopes to use this familiarity in her new role as Acting Certification Director. Between being an ISO 14001-certified internal auditor and holding an OSHA 10 and OSHA 30 training certification, she was also a member of the e-Stewards Standards Committee tasked with creating version 4.0 of the e-Stewards Standard.

Chloe Schierbeck is the new Administrative Assistant at Basel Action Network, which administers e-Stewards. She is Hunkpapa Lakota from the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. She holds an AA in Liberal Arts from H. Indian Nations University and is currently studying for her BA in International Accounting at North Seattle College. Chloe is the owner of Igmuthanka Ihanble LLC, a ribbonskirts and traditional/contemporary arts business. She enjoys sewing, cooking, and traveling in her free time.

eLoop, an e-Stewards processor with two locations in Pennsylvania, has begun using a fully automated robotic processing system for flat panel displays (FPDs), the first of its kind in the United States. The new technology called FPD PRO® offers enhanced efficiency and safety by increasing the volume being processed while securely containing hazardous substances during disassembly. eLoop owner Ned Eldridge said in a press release, “Working manually, a worker can disassemble approximately four flat screens in an hour and is at risk to mercury exposure. The FPD PRO® will safely open up to 90 FPDs per hour.” Operating in the company’s State College facility, which historically housed the Corning Inc. Specialty Glass factory that produced CRTs for television sets for decades, this technology will help to close the loop on the current generation of displays.

Industry stakeholders, including repair advocacy group iFixit and Dynamic Lifecycle Innovations, continue to explore the use of blockchain technology to track devices through the custody chain to reduce fraud. A nonprofit known as the OBADA Foundation is developing an open standard for creating digital representations of real-world assets and creating transparency through the lifecycle of electronics, likening it to a “decentralized Carfax^TM” service. A requirement of both the e-Stewards Standard and NAID AAA, tracking chain of custody is a challenge for those in the ITAD space and can lead to data security risks if gaps in tracking emerge. As the technology revolves around un-revisable blocks that record each transaction in a decentralized database, it would allow trading partners increased confidence in their downstream. After beginning with 23 members, OBADA Decentralized Autonomous Organization is seeking to expand its numbers to 100, opening a waitlist, with only 52 remaining spots (as of November 15).

In a recent article in WIRED, sustainability leadership from five major electronics brands share their experience on what it will take to make consumer technology sustainable and the challenges they face in meeting their ESG goals while translating their achievements into marketability. The participants bring up a number of promising ideas that will simultaneously transform their products’ circularity while strengthening their bottom line. For example, they advocate for a standardized ‘calorie label’ for all electronics, summarizing a product’s contents and the energy and resources required to create it. They also focus on extending the lives of products and creating an increased market and infrastructure for giving devices a second life. A new Best Buy program, Upgrade+, has created a new model for Apple laptops, offering the option to return a device after a three-year lease for an upgraded model, capturing the device for use in its circular economy programs.

Samsung and Apple announced plans to make their products themselves more recyclable from their inception. Both of these companies have also pledged to eliminate plastics from all packaging. These two companies acknowledge the long road ahead, especially without common material standards across the industry, which larger corporations shy away from as it might sacrifice intellectual property.

The leaders emphasize carbon-neutral campaigns corporate-side, within companies, and addressing both the carbon footprint of their supply chains and their devices’ “in use” energy consumption. Apple recently accelerated its call on its supply chain to decarbonize by 2030. Despite these aspirations, a new report from the University of California, Irvine found that greenhouse gas emissions from the manufacturing, transportation, use, and disposal of electronics have increased by 53% between 2014 and 2020.

Finally, not only is it important to have these goals, the interviewees say, but there also must be buy-in from all senior leadership to incorporate them into both long-term and day-to-day decisions. While the corporations represented in this article are at the forefront of ESG aspiration and implementation, most other organizations either have fallen short of their goals, haven’t made any progress on them, or haven’t made any goals to begin with, a new report shows. While more than half of industrial companies (including electronics) have sustainability targets, less than one-third of these are on track to meet them and half have yet to fully deploy their initiatives.

e-Stewards is currently offering a one-time introductory rate for e-Stewards V4.1 Certification for e-cyclers, processors, and refurbishers. Sign-up with a Certifying Body before December 31, 2022, and you will receive 50% off your annual license fee for the first year. Please click here for more details and share with others who may be interested!

External Communication with potential upstream customers: There have been concerns brought to e-Stewards regarding what documentation is necessary to be produced when being vetted by an upstream customer and the concern of confidentiality of that information. The language in section 7.4.3(b) regarding External Communication states, "Confidential communication with upstream customers and the e-Stewards Administrator shall include, upon request, the following information: 1) MOCs moving through the Organization’s Control and throughout the Recycling Chain, including relevant site and contact information;..." New guidance on these clauses will read as follows:

7.4.3(b)(1)  

Denver, CO. The 3rd Annual E-Reuse Conference Repair-Off competition. The first person to replace an IPhone X Earpiece Speaker and Front Sensor Assembly wins. Photo by e-Stewards.

e-Stewards attended the E-Scrap Conference in September, and our Acting Certification Director, Selena Turnock, shared her thoughts after the lively event in New Orleans.

The Digital Fair Repair Act, the country’s first right-to-repair bill to pass a state legislature, has been stalled since it passed the statehouse almost unanimously in June. The measure would require manufacturers to make repair materials, tools, and instructions available to consumers and independent shops on fair and reasonable terms for most electronics they sell in the state. For most consumers, this would allow more options when electronics break, as independent stores would have greater access to the means to repair them. The bill is currently awaiting the governor’s signature and needs to be signed by the end of the year. If you are a resident of New York, Consumer Reports has created this form to voice support for the bill to Governor Hochul. 

Disentangling the worldwide web of e-waste and climate change co-benefits – Report by University of California, Irvine

The e-Stewards® Initiative is a market-based solution to help individuals and organizations identify and promote electronics recyclers who ensure that used electronics are managed with the highest environmental and social responsibility standards. e-Stewards Certified Recyclers and Refurbishers are audited and certified to ensure the highest levels of responsibility. e-Stewards Enterprises are major corporations, municipalities, nonprofits, or institutions that agree to make their best efforts to use e-Stewards Certified Recyclers. e-Stewards is a program established by the environmental advocacy organization Basel Action Network. See e-Stewards Video.

Do you have news, photos, or videos about your company? We welcome news and invite you to share ideas with info@e-stewards.org. Thank you for reading!