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Electronic Waste -- Local Resolutions

What do the Texas cities of Dallas, Georgetown, Plano, Sherman, Rowlett, Kyle, Highland Village, Avery, Austin, Round Rock, San Marcos, Richardson, Tarrant County, Travis County, Hays County and Lakeway have in common?

They all are on record saying that electronic waste should meet its maker.


Why Local Governments Should Support Producer TakeBack Recycling for Electronic Waste

The volume of obsolete electronic products is growing every year. Many local governments are making efforts to address this mounting problem in order to prevent electronics and the toxic materials they contain from going into landfills or incinerators, or to illegal dumps in the US or abroad. Furthermore, local governments and residents are concerned about the personal data on their used electronics and want secure recycling and disposal.

However, the true solution for both the financial and environmental costs of electronic waste, or e-waste, is not to take more funds away from other local programs to pay for the management of these discards, nor to spend more scarce state funds to provide aid to cities and towns for the management of electronic products. Instead, the costs for collecting and recycling electronic products should shift from municipalities and taxpayers to the manufacturers of these products.

Take Action! Write to your local government officials supporting a local resolution calling for Producer TakeBack Recycling.

Texas Campaign for the Environment and the Computer TakeBack Campaign advocate Producer TakeBack Recycling, an equitable waste prevention solution for collecting and recycling electronics that creates a cleaner environment and saves taxpayers money. Producer TakeBack Recycling is a product and waste management system in which manufacturers (“producers”), not consumers or government, are financially responsible for the environmentally safe management of their products when they are obsolete.

Dell and Hewlett-Packard, the two market leaders in computers and peripherals, both support Producer TakeBack Recycling for electronic waste. Dell announced that, starting in September 2006, it will provide free recycling for all Dell products worldwide.

Local Government Resolutions Add Momentum for Producer TakeBack Recycling

Local governments, who have typically shouldered the burden of municipal solid waste, are in a key position to advocate for producer takeback recycling policies. The States of Maine and Washington have passed state laws requiring some level of producer takeback recycling for electronic waste. (The European Union, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan also have producer takeback laws for electronic waste.)

Do you know your Mayor or Councilmember? Are you familiar with your City's political process? We've developed a Toolkit for passing resolutions as a resource for helping get your local government on record.

Download the latest Fact Sheet.

Download the entire Toolkit: MS Word version here or the PDF version here.

State and federal legislators in Texas need to hear from local governments on this issue. Here's a list of resolutions passed so far in Texas, which have all passed unanimously:

• The City of Georgetown in Williamson County became the first local government to pass a non-binding producer takeback resolution on June 14, 2006.
• Plano was the second on September 11, 2006.
• Kyle in Hays County was third on October 3, 2006.
• The City of Dallas added this issue to its agenda for the 2007 state legislative session in October 2006.
• The City of Highland Village in Denton County passed a resolution on December 12, 2006.
• The City of San Marcos in Hays County voted for a resolution on January 8, 2007. The City of Avery in Red River County passed a resolution on January 16, 2007.
• The City of Lakeway in Travis County passed its resolution on January 22, 2007.
• Hays County became the first county government to pass a resolution on February 14, 2007.
• The Austin City Council passed a resolution on March 22, 2007 in favor of all three e-waste bills HB 3758 (Naishtat), HB 2714 (Bonnen/Gattis) and SB 1324 (Watson) and specifically called for producer takeback recycling of computers and TVs.
• Also on March 22, the Round Rock City Council passed a resolution in favor of SB 1324 and encouraged the State Legislature to include TVs in the bill.
• Tarrant County became the second county government to pass a resolution on March 27th, 2007.
• The City of Rowlett passed a resolution on April 3, 2007.
• Travis County unanimously passed a resolution in favor of producer takeback legislation pending at the State Capitol on April 10, 2007.
• The City of Sherman passed a resolution on May 7, 2007.
• The City of Richardson passed a resolution on May 14, 2007.

Numerous other cities are developing Producer TakeBack Recycling resolutions and using Texas Campaign for the Environment as a resource.

Local governments are also taking a closer look at how their own computers are recycled, especially after electronics once owned by the cities of San Antonio and Houston were found in electronic waste dumps in Lagos, Nigeria in 2005. Policies requiring producer takeback recycling sometimes through leasing are gaining ground.

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