Representatives from major electronics manufacturers took to the stage at last week's E-Scrap 2016 conference. They detailed efforts to create more sustainable devices and also took aim at some requirements of state electronics recycling programs. Moderated by Walter Alcorn, the vice president of environmental affairs at the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), the "OEMs Open Up" panel included representatives from Dell,...

Companies participating in California's e-scrap program have been frequently resorting to CRT glass disposal in 2016, and that trend is likely to continue as question marks swirl around the status of a glass-to-glass recycling operation in India. Since Jan. 1, roughly 50 percent of the 43.38 million pounds of CRT glass handled under California's program have gone directly to disposal...

Federal officials are currently considering a change to export regulations that would require companies to document all shipments of used electronic shipments abroad. The proposed change would add a "used electronics" category to the automated export system utilized by the federal government to track and compile export data.The U.S. Census Bureau offered up the proposal in March to "encourage the...

E-scrap processing company Regency Technologies has closed its CRT dismantling operation. At the same time, it has opened two electronics recycling facilities in the Southeast. In an interview, a Regency executive said the company closed its CRT site in Upper Sandusky, Ohio this summer due in large part to a reduced CRT supply from Best Buy. The retail giant began...

In a paper published late last month in the journal Environmental International, Harvard University's Diana Ceballos and colleague Zhao Dong found that the global formal e-scrap sector has ample room to improve when it comes to reducing environmental and occupational exposures. In their review of recent research from around the world, Ceballos and Dong note that while the formal electronics...

Metal Conversion Technologies has reached a $25,000 settlement with the U.S. government and the state of Georgia over a series of alleged safety and environmental infractions. The settlement requires MCT to pay fines and conduct a multi-phase remediation project in Georgia. The project will be overseen by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and...

A bill aimed at expanding recycling outlets for CRT panel glass has passed out of California's legislature – and not a single lawmaker cast a vote against it. After gaining the unanimous support of California's Senate, AB 1419 passed the Assembly on a vote of 80-0 last week. The legislation will allow panel glass containing barium levels exceeding current state...

A bill in California opens up recycling pathways for panel glass from CRTs by allowing barium levels to exceed current state limits. The bill, AB 1419, passed the California Senate unanimously this week and now is on its way for a concurrence vote by the Assembly. If the Assembly approves the measure, it would then need the signature of Gov....

New York's Tekserve shut down this week after 29 years in business. The company was done in by sustained competition from Apple, the very brand that was central to Tekserve's business model. The company, which was founded in 1987 by David Lerner and Dick Demenus, opened as a repair store exclusively for Apple products. Over time, Tekserve grew to sell...

The City of Ann Arbor, Mich. recently terminated a processing contract with ReCommunity, alleging safety concerns. But a ReCommunity executive says the municipality was just trying to get out of a deal that was no longer producing financial returns. "All the pieces of the puzzle keep leading back to they didn't like the financial deal that left them exposed in...