I often have email exchanges with ecopreneurs, non-profits, NGOs and various business folks that don’t necessarily end up as a blog post. Sometimes I start in one direction and end up in another. That’s what happened here when I received an email from Rob Wallace at Keep America Beautiful.
Rob had one of those ironic moments. He sent out an email and press release to us asking:
How can recycling wireless phones support the new administration’s energy policy? Our recycling partner, ReCellular, is a reuse-oriented recycler of cellular equipment, and we’re confident that their structure and operations support zero-waste wireless recycling.
Great email pitch. Bookmark this page for next time you send out a press release. However, this pitch landed on my screen the day after I wrote this post on 60 Minutes and Executive Recycling. I immediately asked Rob if he’d be interested in commenting on the whole issue of dumping of e-waste in China instead. And he was and here is what he had to say:
Of course we saw that 60 Minutes segment. Offshoring of electronics recycling has been on our radar from day one. In fact, many of our affiliates criticized us for being slow to adopt a cellphone recycling program for this very reason. As you know, phone recycling has been around for a long time, but we only rolled out a national program in 2007.
As a result, some of our affiliates jumped on to what I might consider “questionable” recycling programs. Understandably, they were interested in “doing the right thing” and may have felt that our perceived bureaucracy was slowing down their potential response to the growing issue of eWaste. We are now making sure to message the importance of vetting their vendors if they don’t choose our programs (they’re not required to use any particular vendors, though we do strongly recommend that they do). I think the best thing to come from the 60 Minutes segment is that our local organizations, as well as ALL organizations that recycle electronics, will be looking at their vendors and partners more carefully.
Our vetting process for partnerships varies based on the desired outcome of the program and the potential downsides.
For instance, if we are partnering with a public-spaces recycler in a community, we will seek assurances that the receptacles are properly maintained and legally sited. But if they are primarily collecting glass, plastic, metals and paper, we aren’t as concerned about the endcycle as we are with something as potentially hazardous as e-Waste.
In our Wireless phone recycling program, we worked closely with both the EPA and Sprint to find a vendor that could verify a “near-zero-waste” and zero-landfill/zero-incineration approach. As you know, reuse is the BEST option for minimizing impact. We sought a vendor with the best reuse/resale infrastructure in place that would assure that materials recovery was only happening on the most un-sellable hardware received. And we sought assurance that no materials were shipped to developing countries. ReCellular met all of the above criteria.
Since our affiliates rarely deal with hazardous materials outside of community hazardous materials recycling events (in conjunction with their local authorities), this was a rather exceptional exercise. As we expand our programs into other types of eWaste we will use this as a model. And after seeing the coverage on 60 Minutes, in National Geographic, and in other media, we’ll certainly be sure to only release a program when we’re sure that it’s not creating more problems than it’s solving.
Wow. No mention of BAN. I wonder why…
After seeing this report, I cannot help but wonder what the link between these firms are and the likes of Best Buy, Circuit City, and the OEM brands who are all adding collection drives to their sustainability platforms.
What is the possibility that these groups are actually the partners they are using, and how can firms make sure that the products collected are not offshored illegally?
r
http://www.cleanergreenerchina.com
http://www.china-crossroads.com
Jennifer,
Not an intentional omission at all! BAN is an incredible organization and we have them to thank for much of the awareness that led us to this approach. We hope that all recyclers will sign on to their standards. As mentioned, we sought not just a recycler but primarily a reseller/reuser of the equipment with a strong network and infrastructure that ensured that most phones never even had to be recycled.
Cleaner, Greener,
I can tell you that these retailers and OEM’s are increasingly concerned about the endycycle of their products. They don’t want to be pulled into the sludge over their CSR programs either – and they’re putting us through the paces as well. One of the great advantages of our modern age is that greenwashing is quickly uncovered and broadcast.