Electronic recycling takes step forward

Written by

KXAN News Austin
Jessica Brorman

AUSTIN (KXAN) – The use and production of electronics continues to grow at a dizzying pace. That means every new electronic product, whether it’s a Blackberry, PC, iPod or flat-screen TV, is future e-waste.

E-waste is the 2.5 million tons of old and obsolete electronic equipment that Americans discard every day. And it contains toxic materials that flow into our waste stream.

Obama administration officials met with senior executives from Sony, Dell and Sprint Wednesday at an Austin electronics recycling center to sign and release a strategy for the responsible management and recycling of electronic products.

The strategy, titled the “National Strategy for Electronics Stewardship,” is a step in creating economic development and jobs by creating a strong electronics recycling market.

The venture includes the first voluntary commitments made by Dell, Sprint and Sony to the Environmental Protection Agency’s industry partnership aimed at promoting the environmentally sound management of used electronics.

It also aims to encourage businesses and consumers to recycle their electronics with certified recyclers, and for electronic recyclers to become certified.

The federal government is the nation’s largest single consumer of electronics. Through this report, it committed to take specific actions that will encourage the more environmentally friendly design of used or discarded electronics, and advance a domestic market for electronics recycling that will protect public health and create jobs.

As outlined in the strategy report, the federal government will:

– Promote the development of more efficient and sustainable electronic products Direct federal agencies to buy, use, reuse and recycle their electronics responsibly
– Support recycling options and systems for American consumers
– Strengthen America’s role in the international electronics stewardship arena.

Nancy Sutley, who chairs the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said the partnership is not only good for human and environment health, but will have an economically sound effect as well.

“This strategy will encourage the recycling of these valuable resources and allow the U.S.to take advantage of the economic opportunities of remanufacturing and create jobs of the future here in America,” Sutley said.

Dell CEO Michael Dell said this agreement will help the company reach its goal to recycle 1 billion pounds of end-of-life electronics by 2014.

“We encourage everyone in our industry to commit to easier, more responsible recycling as we all work to protect our planet,” Dell said.

A statement released by the Texas Campaign for the Environment said that although this report shows positive steps in fixing America’s e-waste problem, more legislative action need to take place to really make a difference.

“The report released by the EPA detailing a national task force for electronics recycling standards has many good steps in the right direction, but the recommendations in the report don’t go far enough. Texas Campaign for the Environment and allies are pushing a bi-partisan, federal bill to halt illegal e-waste export dumping overseas. We would like to have the support of all members of Congress and the President on this very important legislation that will boost jobs and economic growth in America.”

The non-profit organization that works to improve and protect the quality of life for Texans and the environment. It has worked with the national Electronics TakeBack Coalition to pass federal legislation to put an end e-waste.

TCE also has a federal legislative campaign that pushes lawmakers to make electronics producers take back and recycle their obsolete products and to ban the exportation of e-waste.

The long-term recycling deal

Written by

Photo: Houston ChronicleOffthekuff.com
Charles Kuffner
Original article here

I noticed this when it was posted last week but didn’t give it much thought at the time.

There’s a 20-year no-bid contract on today’s City Council agenda.

That’s legal because it’s an amendment to an existing contract, not a new contract.

But it’s still got Councilman Ed Gonzalez‘s attention. He tagged it last week so that it could not be voted on until today. And today, City Hall sources say, Gonzalez will propose sending it back to the administration to have the recycling contract bid competitively.

“The markets are emerging and the value of the commodity is emerging,” Councilman C.O. Bradford said Tuesday, and that emerging value is increasing. “So why would we lock ourselves into a 20-year deal?”

Environmentalists are also questioning the wisdom of the contract.

“We think it makes common sense that it should be bid because you’re going to get a better deal for Houston taxpayers if you have an open, competitive process,” said Zac Trahan of the Texas Campaign for the Environment.

The effort by CM Gonzalez to send this back was successful. Trahan emailed me later with some background on all that happened. From his email:

Houston had a short-term contract (through 2012) with Abitibi when they owned the facility, then WMI bought the recycling center, and then city officials begun working on a long-term recycling contract extension with WMI. We found out about this contract about two weeks ago, and together with allies at the SEIU Texas State Council, the Apollo Alliance and the Houston Sierra Club, we’ve been working to delay its adoption and make sure it goes through a competitive “request for proposal” process instead. At today’s City Council meeting it seems we were successful.

Of course, our organizations have spent the past couple weeks communicating with the Solid Waste Management Department, Mayor Parker and all City Council Members about this contract. We spoke at length with Sustainability Director Laura Spanjian. We sent email alerts to our members urging them to contact Houston officials. Our phone-banking staff asked our members to participate by calling Mayor Parker and other Council Members directly.

However, we also reached out to other waste and recycling companies to gauge their level of interest in submitting a formal proposal. Two companies – Texas Disposal Systems, out of Austin, and Greenstar, here in Houston – have expressed interest so far. These companies both sent letters to Mayor Parker and the Council Members communicating that they would indeed bid and compete for the contract if given the opportunity. A representative from Greenstar even attended today’s city council meeting to testify to this effect. During the meeting Council Member Gonzalez made a motion to send the contract back to the administration to go through the RFP process, and that motion prevailed. We see this as a victory for recycling and a victory for Houston taxpayers, because an open, competitive bidding process will certainly result in the best recycling contract and the best deal for Houston residents.

Of course this issue is far from settled. We’re only beginning our work. Next we must ensure the RFP itself is designed with the right criteria in mind – not just that Houston officials should go with the “lowest bidder,” but that we should identify the best overall recycling program for our money. Then we must work to see that the best proposal really is selected, and to defeat efforts by any company or companies attempting to use their connections at city hall to influence the process. We’ll keep you posted as this process moves forward.

Here’s a copy of a letter that was sent to Mayor Parker by Trahan and folks from the Apollo Alliance, the Sierra Club, and the SEIU Texas State Council. I’m glad to see that this deal will now be competitively bid, and I think Trahan and his colleagues are correct to think in terms of the deal in more than just lowest-cost terms. For example, according to that blog post the deal that had been in the works with WMI called for them to give the city 15,000 big green recycling carts this year and 1,500 carts a year thereafter. That sounds like a lot until you realize that as of February there were 270,000 households serviced by Houston’s Solid Waste department that do not have the big bins. I’d like to see the speed at which the companies would get these wheely-bins to the public be part of the bid evaluation. For that matter, I’d like to see what ideas these guys have for expanding the recycling program beyond the 375,000 households that Solid Waste serves. Do they have any thoughts about getting apartments, office buildings, restaurants, or other commercial establishments involved? This is a 20-year deal, we should be thinking big. Think about what you’d like to see and let your Council members know.

No-bid recycling contract could get held up

Written by

Houston Chronicle
Chris Moran

There’s a 20-year no-bid contract on today’s City Council agenda.

That’s legal because it’s an amendment to an existing contract, not a new contract.

But it’s still got Councilman Ed Gonzalez‘s attention. He tagged it last week so that it could not be voted on until today. And today, City Hall sources say, Gonzalez will propose sending it back to the administration to have the recycling contract bid competitively.

“The markets are emerging and the value of the commodity is emerging,” Councilman C.O. Bradford said Tuesday, and that emerging value is increasing. “So why would we lock ourselves into a 20-year deal?”

Environmentalists are also questioning the wisdom of the contract.

“We think it makes common sense that it should be bid because you’re going to get a better deal for Houston taxpayers if you have an open, competitive process,” said Zac Trahan of the Texas Campaign for the Environment.

So why not bid it? A spokesman for the city’s Solid Waste Management Department said that the department talked informally with a couple of companies and found that Waste Management, which currently takes city recyclables, offered the best deal.

“That’s always a question, but based on informal discussions we had with the current single-stream companies (which take all forms of recyclables) in town, what was offered to us through that informal discussion, the benefits weren’t in comparison with each other,” said Gary Readore, chief of staff for Solid Waste.

The deal itself nets the city $2 million more than if it just continued leasing land to Waste Management to run its recycling operation. The gain comes through Waste Management giving the city 15,000 big green recycling carts this year and 1,500 carts a year thereafter.

Readore said that if the contract has to be bid, it will likely take six to 12 months. Only if the carts are part of the deal that results will the city get them. The city cannot afford them now, Readore said. So bidding the contract will delay the expansion of curbside recycling for the time it takes to bid the contract out, he said.

Update: Mayor Parker said the item will be pulled from today’s agenda and re-examined by the administration.