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Green Initiative – Electronics
Promoting and Practicing Environmental Stewardship for Electronic Products
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Cell Phone Recycling | en Español
EPA’s Resource Conservation Challenge (RCC) seeks to renew the emphasis on resource conservation under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and the emphasis on preventing pollution and conserving natural resources under the Pollution Prevention Act. The RCC brings greater urgency to EPA’s message of reducing, reusing, and recycling valuable materials habitually discarded by Americans by linking the importance of these activities to energy conservation and greenhouse gas reductions. One key area of focus under the RCC is electronics.
Why Electronics?
EPA has been actively helping to improve the design and recovery of electronics for more than a decade. Our interest in electronics stems from four primary concerns:
- Rapid growth and change in this product sector, leading to a constant stream of new product offerings and a wide array of obsolete products needing appropriate management;
- Energy consumption by these products (the Energy Information Agency’s Annual Energy Outlook 2006 projects that electronics will a count for 19 percent of residential energy use by 2020, compared with 14 percent of home energy consumption in 2006);
- Presence of toxic substances in many products which can cause problematic exposures during manufacturing, recycling or disposal, if not properly managed; – the presence of these constituents has sparked the search for workable substitutes and development of better management practices; and
- Need to ensure widespread, convenient and affordable reuse and recycling infrastructure for electronics (with initial emphasis on TVs, PCs and cell phones) and, in doing so, to conserve and recover the large amount of embodied energy and valuable materials inherent in used electronics.
Our Goals
Our electronics work is anchored by three goals to reduce the environmental impacts of electronic products:
- Foster environmentally conscious design and manufacturing;
- Increase purchasing and use of more environmentally sustainable electronics; and
- Increase safe, environmentally sound reuse and recycling of used electronics.
What We Are Doing
EPA is currently working with stakeholders in both the public and private sectors to meet these goals. The aim is to make it easier and more cost-effective for consumers, retailers, recyclers, manufacturers, and governments at all levels to help divert these products into environmentally sound reuse and recycling outlets, as well as to reduce the environmental footprint of electronic product in manufacture and use. We want citizens to realize their impact on the environment and take action to reduce it—whether they are buying a new electronic product or disposing of an old one. To help make this change happen, the RCC relies heavily on voluntary partnerships to promote and encourage the reuse and recycling of used electronic products.
RCC partners are working together to harness institutional purchasing power in order to increase the demand for “green” electronics. They also are establishing best practices for the operation and maintenance of electronic products, and providing opportunities to safely reuse and recycle old or unwanted products. Examples of current initiatives include the following:
Electronic Product Environmental
Assessment Tool (EPEAT)
EPEAT, developed in partnership with industry, the purchasing community and government, is an environmental procurement tool that rates laptop and desktop computers and monitors on their energy use, recyclability, packaging, and other environmental attributes. These ratings -- bronze, silver or gold -- help the institutional and individual consumers pick a product that uses less energy, creates less waste and contains fewer harmful materials. EPEAT aims to promote greener purchasing by purchasers, spurring manufacturers to make more electronics that are environmentally friendly throughout their life cycle.
Plug-In to eCycling
Plug-In To eCycling is a partnership between EPA and electronic manufacturers and retailers to offer consumers more opportunities to donate or recycle – ecycle - their used electronics. It promotes the environmental benefits of ecycling and provides the public with information on safely reusing and recycling obsolete electronics products, such as computers, televisions, and cell phones. The program’s initiatives are intended to reflect shared responsibility among manufacturers, retailers, governments and consumers and illustrate how voluntary industry-led models or public-private partnerships can complement or inform state or municipality-led collection and recycling efforts.
Federal Electronics
Challenge
The Federal Electronics Challenge (FEC) is a voluntary partnership program
that works with Federal departments and agencies to increase the purchase
green electronic products, reduce the environmental impacts of electronic
products, and manage obsolete electronics in an environmentally safe way.
Responsible Recycler
EPA is working with stakeholders (i.e., states, e-manufacturers, e-recyclers, trade associations and public interest groups) to develop one agreed upon set of practices that can be used in a voluntary certification program which assures the safe environmental practices by electronic recyclers.
More Information
For information on donating and recycling electronic equipment, answers to frequently asked questions about electronic waste, regulatory requirements, and additional resources, please see eCycling.