Whole Foods Market California and two companies it owns will pay over $1.6 million to settle allegations they improperly disposed of electronics and hazardous wastes.
Whole Foods Market California and two companies it owns will pay over $1.6 million to settle allegations they improperly disposed of electronics and hazardous wastes.
Material at the Mesquite, Texas ECS Refining facility. E-Scrap News file photo.
E-scrap processor Dynamic Recycling has signed a deal to buy assets from bankrupt company ECS Refining. Meanwhile, environmental and cost complications are popping up around facility cleanup efforts.
It’s been 15 years since California’s e-scrap program was launched, and those years have brought significant changes to the end-of-life device stream. Now, administrators of the country’s first state program have adopted a vision for the future.
Processors handling non-CRT devices will be paid 60 cents a pound by the state of California, a 22 percent increase over their current payment rate.
Processors in California will soon receive reimbursement rates that vary based on the type of device recycled. Regulators this week approved a variable payment rate system in response to the changing end-of-life electronics stream.
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The Home Depot will pay nearly $28 million in a California settlement involving disposal of e-scrap, batteries, household hazardous waste and intact customer information.
This story originally appeared in the June 2016 issue of E-Scrap News.
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Credit: Eric Dykstra
Changes in the end-of-life stream are prompting the oldest state electronics recycling program in the country to rethink its processor payment system.
Two electronics recycling companies recently ended disputes with California regulators that centered on the handling of metal-laden dust from e-scrap shredders. The situation raises debate about what material should be labeled hazardous.
Regulators in California are studying a number of legislative fixes to the nation’s longest-running e-scrap program, including expanding the existing consumer-funded model or going with a more commonly used system financed by OEMs.