The irony will not be lost on the electronics sector. The Basel Ban Amendment, short a few remaining votes at the May meeting of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, ultimately failed to get the necessary support for passage in spite of much fanfare. The Basel Ban Amendment would have meant a virtual halt in the continued export of e-waste internationally. As of September 2019, it…
International E-Waste Laws Extend to Victoria The global push for prohibitions on both the landfilling and exporting (to the developing world) of e-waste has given rise to new legislative initiatives in many parts of the world. The Australian State of Victoria has just enacted new e-waste restrictions effectively prohibiting the disposal of electronic or electrical equipment to landfill and requiring its treatment to occur within Australia, thereby generating opportunities for domestic resource recovery providers. The…
As the pace quickens in imposing full Extended Producer Responsibility for numerous regulated products and materials under Ontario’s Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act, 2016, the first design-for-environment (DfE) regulatory standards have been introduced, and e-waste (along with lighting and batteries) will be the test case. DfE has long featured as an aspirational goal of the European Union circular economy program, but it’s been commonly out of reach of institutional product stewardship programs unable to…
Ontario’s waste electrical and electronic equipment (e-waste) stewardship obligations are being transitioned to a circular economy legal regime. The government-overseen e-waste program is being wound-up and will effectively cease as of June 30, 2020. The program has managed to generate such a surplus of funds from consumers it otherwise would pay the electronics recycling industry that it’s obtained approval from the Ontario government to grant the industry, and presumably in turn, consumers a “fee holiday”…
“Canada continues to allow exports of hazardous e-waste to flow to developing countries (in this case, China and Pakistan)… These are all likely to be illegal.” Export of e-Waste from Canada, October 10th, 2018, Basel Action Network The release of this report by the Basel Action Network, subtitled A Story as Told by GPS Trackers, has thrown a veritable thunderbolt into the midst of the waste electrical and electronic equipment recycling industry in Canada (and…