Colin Staub is a reporter at Resource Recycling. He can be contacted at [email protected].
The electronics recovery business is escaping widespread regulations that are closing companies in other fields. | Mikhail Starodubov/Shutterstock
E-scrap and ITAD operations are largely falling into the category of essential services amid the coronavirus pandemic. Although that doesn’t mean smooth sailing, it allows recycling facilities to stay open alongside other critical industries.
ITADCentral provides a hub for vendors to list their services and ITAD customers to seek providers tailored to their specific needs. | Plus69/Shutterstock
An ITAD veteran recently launched a platform connecting service providers with enterprise customers, with a goal of refreshing what he calls an “archaic” industry practice: the request-for-proposal process.
Living Green handles a variety of devices, but mostly focuses on office IT assets.
Over the course of three years, Seattle-area processor Living Green Technology has grown from a one-man show to a small business that’s well-positioned to serve the asset disposition needs of the Pacific Northwest’s tech sector.
Leaders at both R2 and e-Stewards cited safety concerns for recycling and refurbishing operations as well as the auditors that visit them. | Courtesy R2 Corporation
The administrators of e-scrap standards are adjusting auditing and certification procedures in response to the global coronavirus pandemic. R2 and e-Stewards both published guidance on the temporary policies this week.
EPA alleged AERC was out of compliance with the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), which governs hazardous waste management. | JHVEPhoto/Shutterstock
An e-scrap company must pay a $10,000 fine and hold one or more collection events costing $40,000, as part of a settlement with regulators.
Best Buy on March 22 announced its retail stores would close to the public and temporarily suspend recycling activities. | LukeandKarla.Travel/Shutterstock
Citing concerns over COVID-19, a major retailer, the largest U.S. city and a handful of other electronics recycling collection channels have paused services.
E-scrap processors report coronavirus-driven disruptions both with vendors and customers. | joshimerbin/Shutterstock
The global escalation of COVID-19 is causing supplier and customer disruption for e-scrap processors, while on a wider scale it constrains global shipping, dents stock prices and threatens an economic recession.
A European Commission plan calls for right-to-repair measures to be introduced by 2021. | Poravute Siriphiroon/Shutterstock
European lawmakers this week committed to enshrine greater device repairability in law, with their adoption of a Circular Economy Action Plan.
Rolph Payet, executive secretary of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions, speaks at the Plastics Recycling Conference and Trade Show. | Plastics Recycling Conference/Brian Adams Photography
Scrap plastic exporters should closely monitor policy changes in the countries they sell to as the global community prepares to enact more aggressive shipment requirements, according to the top staff member for the Basel Convention.
