California E-waste Law Still a Bust

Lloyd Billingsley: California’s 2003 Electronic Waste Recycling Act (EWRA) is taking another hit, this time from the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition.

Sheila Davis, executive director of the watchdog group, told a legislative hearing that the law “is not working,” the Sacramento Bee reported. Last year the Bee revealed that EWRA was “hampered by fraud and lax oversight.”

The state itself is a major offender according to a March 31, 2010 CalWatchdog investigation by Anthony Pignitaro. He revealed that “many state agencies are apparently still throwing computers, television sets, radios, printers, copiers, radios and cell phones into the trash rather than putting them through special recycling efforts.”

In similar style, California’s E-Waste Waste, a 2009 Pacific Research Institute (CalWatchdog’s parent think tank) study by Daniel Ballon, found EWRA “a high risk for fraudulent activities,” and that less than half of the facilities audited were in complete compliance with program rules. Inefficiency was also a hallmark.

To recycle a single electronic item, Ballon found, requires “12 distinct transactions across three separate agencies.” As of 2008 expenses grew nearly three times faster than revenue from the program, which cost the state an annual $150 million.

“EWRA is still the only e-waste recycling law that taxes consumers to create a government-run bureaucracy,” Ballon wrote. He recommended “market-driven reforms based on industry-led recycling solutions that can compete without the intrusion of a massive, taxpayer-backed recycling bureaucracy.”

MARCH 11, 2011