Getting your product back: coping with the challenge of global electronics recycling mandates

As electronics manufacturers negotiate to set up a national recovery system for end-of-life TV's, PC's and peripherals in the U.S., industry is lobbying hard to shape the stringent draft Directives in Europe this year. In Europe, little attention has been paid to how the existing producer responsibility or EPR directives have lead to a costly patchwork of collection systems, and if this will be repeated in the waste electronics directives down the road. This paper looks at some existing mandatory and voluntary "takeback" systems for packaging, batteries and electronics. It appears that culture plays a big role in recovery rates. Electronics makers will benefit if they look hard at some of the large "hidden costs" of their own industry-created organizations, to avoid mistakes in the new collections systems, both in the U.S. and Europe.