National Strategy for Electronics Stewardship Report Issued

The Interagency Task Force on Electronics Stewardship, which is co-chaired by the White House Council on Environmental Quality, Environmental Protection Agency, and General Services Administration, has released the National Strategy for Electronics Stewardship, which details the federal government's plan to enhance the management of electronics throughout the product life cycle.

The report identifies four overarching goals:

• Build Incentives for Design of Greener Electronics, and Enhance Science, Research and Technology Development in the United States
• Ensure that the Federal Government Leads By Example
• Increase Safe and Effective Management and Handling of Used Electronics in the United States
• Reduce Harm from US Exports of E-Waste and Improve Safe Handling of Used Electronics in Developing Countries

For each goal, the report identifies action items and the projects by which each action item will be implemented. A number of these refer to certification programs and use of certified recyclers. Some examples:

• Promote consumer purchasing of green electronics that are certified as meeting stringent environmental performance criteria that address environmental impacts across the entire lifecycle of the products.
• Ensure expansion of quality green electronics certification programs, including EPEAT to consider environmental impacts across entire product life cycles and to cover additional types of electronics.
• Establish a comprehensive and transparent government-wide policy on used Federal electronics that maximizes reuse, clears data and information stored on used equipment, and ensures that all Federal electronics are processed by certified recyclers.
• Encourage electronics manufacturers to expand their product take-back programs, and use certified recyclers as a minimum standard in those programs, by expanding the use of manufacturer take-back agreements in Federal electronics purchase, rental and service contracts.
• Require and enable recipients of former Federal equipment that has been sold, transferred, or donated for reuse to use certified recyclers and follow other environmentally sound practices to the greatest extent possible.

An annex of benchmarks  lists each of the projects, the primary agency responsible for the project and any agencies supporting the primary agency in that effort, and the target date for completion of the project. This annex will be updated as the National Strategy is further developed and implemented.