Lane County nonprofit electronics refurbisher/recycler NextStep Recycling supports regulation of electronic waste disposal, emphasizing reuse and accountability for all handlers of electronic waste.

NextStep Recycling announces its support of draft legislation moving through the Energy and the Environment Committee of the Oregon House of Representatives. That committee will recommend a bill to the full House in mid-March.

Improper disposal of electronic waste—much of which contains hazardous materials like lead—currently causes enormous environmental and public health problems, both locally and worldwide. Third world countries earn money by importing American e-waste, but are generally ill-equipped to dispose of it properly. Typical results (documented extensively by the Basel Action Network) are contaminated drinking water and toxic fumes from burned materials. Although there is an interium DEQ CRT ban here in Oregon, CRT monitors and televisions (containing large quantities of lead, and not accepted by curbside garbage haulers) are thrown in the landfill.

Rep. Jackie Dingfelder (D-HD45) has advocated e-waste regulation for several years, to reduce these problems. Now chairing the Energy and the Environment Committee, and with bipartisan and industry support, she is likely to succeed in passing a law. Oregon will likely join Washington and California by creating a mechanism in which manufacturers and consumers fund a system for proper disposal of e-waste.

NextStep Recycling has a strong and innovative 5-year record of reducing e-waste problems. NextStep Recycling supports the intent to regulate e-waste disposal, and encourages legislators to consider two key points as draft legislation is refined:

1. Prioritize reuse over recycling. Even responsible disposal has environmental and social costs. Older hardware is often reusable, and the techniques developed by NextStep Recycling to maximize the use of older hardware should be incorporated into new public policy. Under any fee structure put into law, end-processors who produce working computers should be paid more than those who produce raw materials for recycling.

2. Ensure that end processors are truly responsible. NextStep Recycling seeks out processing partners who engage in responsible practices. Certification of scrap processors, and transparency of methodology, are essential in order to ensure that the state's approved processors meet or exceed environmental stewardship standards and state requirements for hazardous waste handling.

NextStep Recycling is a Lane County, OR nonprofit volunteer based organization that refurbishes used technology to provide computers and other electronics, education, internet access, job and social skills training to those who do not have access to technology. NextStep volunteers have refurbished over 5,000 working computers and recycled over one million five hundred pounds of obsolete technology since 2004. In 2005, NextStep Recycling was recognized with the Lane County Commissioner’s Trash Buster’s Award, and in 2006, with the Association of Oregon Recyclers' Alice Soderwall Reuse and Waste Prevention Award.

Contact information:
Lorraine Kerwood Executive Director, NextStep Recycling ~ http://www.nextsteprecycling.org
Member, Lane County Resource Recovery Advisory Committee
A proud Lane County Master Recycler
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A 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Organization
Donations (541) 686-2366
ReUSE Store: (541) 868-0904
Office FAX: (541) 686-0577
2101 West 10th Avenue Eugene, OR 97402