My blog post this week is on an article from Recyclingtoday.com,
and is about a proposed bill. This proposed bill is known as H.R. 2284 in the House
of Representatives, and S. 1270 in the Senate respectively. This bill is more
commonly known as the Responsible Electronics Recycling Act (RERA). This
article has debate from both positive and negatives of the RERA. There has been
lobbying groups in support of RERA and also against it as well. Several
electronic recyclers, industry groups, and environmental groups have publicly
supported RERA. The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) has come out
against this bill. In 2012 the Congressional Research Service (CRS) released a
report that coincides with the view of the ISRI as well as the Basel Action
Network (BAN), an activist group already discussed in class. RERA’s purpose
would be to prohibit the export of some electronics that, if improperly disposed,
could create environmental, health, or national security risks. RERA would
accomplish this by adding a new sect to the Resource Conservation and Recovery
Act (RCRA) which is designed to protect developing countries from receiving our
E-waste. RERA lists several materials,
or chemicals in particular that would make a product restricted waste and could
not be legally shipped to another country, unless that country approves of the
transfer. RERA also calls for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set
minimum standards for the toxic substances, and clarify which materials are
toxic, and which are not. These bipartisan actions are consistent with most
other developed nations, and are a step in the right direction from keeping
E-waste out of the wrong hands.
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