E-Waste

DEQ is in the initial stages of reviewing policy needs to implement

California lawmakers passed a pair of bills, Senate Bill 1215 and Assembly Bill 2440, to create a statewide collection and recycling program for consumer batteries and products that contain batteries.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality seeks to engage with stakeholders to identify and analyze options for modernizing Oregon’s E-Cycles Program through legislation to be introduced in 2023. DEQ invites interested parties to join in two virtual stakeholder workshops to help modernize Oregon’s E-cycles program.

Two City Councilmembers are pushing legislation that would create composting and electronics waste drop-off sites to compensate for recycling reductions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the Community Organics and Recycling Empowerment (CORE) Act, the city would place three drop-off sites for organics and community recycling centers for hazardous or e-waste in each community district by June 2021. The 177 centers would be open 20 hours a week, at minimum.

Secretly Exposed Foreign Workers to Mercury Waste to Increase Corporate Profits and Enrich Themselves

Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality today announced a $553,750 settlement with Total Reclaim, Inc. The settlement resolves the state’s long-running investigation into TRI’s operations under Oregon’s E-Cycles program, a program that encourages Oregon consumers to recycle electronic devices in a safe and sustainable manner. This settlement follows resolution of a related DEQ penalty action against TRI in September, 2018 for alleged violation of the state’s hazardous waste laws.

By Geoffrey A. Fowler, Washington Post's technology columnist based in San Francisco

The problem with recycling our old tech gadgets: They explode.