Triple Pundit
Leon Kaye

It is proxy season, which means all kinds of shareholder resolutions and protests are targeting some of America’s largest companies for a host of reasons. One company in the crosshairs is Walmart, the focus of organizations including the Texas Campaign for the Environment and Take It Back Walmart. Both organizations have published a letter to Walmart urging the discount retail giant to do more about e-waste.

Particularly interesting is that the “Open Letter” had the signature of over 100 faith leaders from all 50 U.S. states. While commending Walmart for its sustainability efforts that the company has ramped up since 2005, the reverends, priests, rabbis, imams and activists from churches and activist organizations demand that Walmart do even more. The faith community taking on companies is nothing new. What is impressive is the positive message the letter imparts, acknowledging the company has achieved much on this front, and now insisting that Walmart embrace more recycling and closed-loop programs.

The letter points out that Walmart sells more than $50 billion in electronics annually, and is therefore in a strong position to take a stand on the improved disposal and recycling of e-waste. The faith leaders also nudge the company to participate more in programs that encourage the greener design of electronics while preventing any schemes that send e-waste abroad to developing countries. Pointing out that Staples, Best Buy and Office Depot all accept unwanted electronics, the religious leaders say in the letter that it is time for Walmart to do the same.

So far Walmart has not said much on the issue. The company’s VP for sustainability, Andrea Thomas, has told the group behind the letter that Walmart has “an internal cross functional team that is actively engaged on the issue,” an exercise in public relations linguistic gymnastics that in English means, “we are working on it.”

The lessons for companies such as Walmart is that while publicly traded corporates have a bevy of responsibilities to their shareholders under U.S. law, including maximizing the company’s value, excuses on any issues of corporate social responsibility or governance are wearing thinner with consumers and other stakeholder groups. Furthermore a robust market for e-waste exists and plenty of companies are eager to pounce on the economic opportunities. It should not take too much creativity out of Bentonville to launch an ambitious electronic waste program that will embarrass other retailers and manufacturers to fall into line and do the same and position Walmart yet again as a leader. This Open Letter is an opportunity, not a hassle, and opens the door to proving that one of the world’s largest companies can boost profits as well as values.

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.

Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Teresa McUsic

Don’t know what to do with your old computer? You’re not alone.

In 2009, Texas ranked dead last in per capita collections of old computers among the seven states that require manufacturers to take back old equipment from consumers, according to a report released this week by the Texas Campaign for the Environment Fund. Click here to read the report.

It’s the first data available since the state’s computer take-back law took effect in 2008, and it shows that computer manufacturers recovered about 15 million pounds of their old electronics in Texas, or slightly more than 1/2 pound per person. In comparison, Minnesota collected almost 3 pounds of computer equipment per person in the first year of its program, plus more than 3 pounds of televisions and other electronic equipment, called e-waste.

“The Texas law is very specific and very limited to just individual home-based computers,” said Jeffrey Jacoby, TCE Fund program director in Dallas.

Some states also require manufacturers to take back electronic equipment from small businesses, small nonprofits and school districts that use their brands, Jacoby said. Oregon, Washington and Rhode Island require firms to set up collection sites in every county and city with 10,000 people or more.

In total, 20 states and New York City have either active or pending take-back laws for electronics, Jacoby said.*

In Texas, Round Rock-based computer maker Dell dominated the state’s computer take-back program last year, collecting almost 85 percent of the total.

Dell’s program was more effective than those of other manufacturers because it developed a partnership with Goodwill Industries and retailer Staples. Through the Dell Reconnect program, Goodwill accepts at no cost any brand of computer from consumers at its outlets statewide. Staples accepts Dell computers at its Texas locations at no charge. (The retailer will take back other brands for a $10 recycling fee.)

Most other computer manufacturers fulfill their obligations in Texas by offering a no-cost mail-back program in which consumers request or print out a mailing label, receive shipping materials and drop off their old computer at a shipping service. Jacoby said this method has been less effective, resulting in poor showings by the manufacturers on their recycling efforts.

For example, Hewlett-Packard reclaimed 4.6 percent of the state’s total, or around 688,000 pounds of its equipment last year, Jacoby said. HP had a drop-off program with Staples through the first half of last year but canceled it and used the mail-back option the rest of the year.

“The bare-bones Texas legislation evidently didn’t inspire companies to get out there and recycle our old electronic junk the same way other state laws did,” Jacoby said.

Tarrant County residents have multiple ways to drop off any brand of computer, along with any other household electronics, through Goodwill Industries of Fort Worth, said Ray Jones, senior vice president of electronic technology and refurbishing.

“We have a pretty big program with Dell,” Jones said. “In the first four months of this year alone, we’ve processed and recycled more than 624,000 pounds of computer components.”

Goodwill also partners with the cities of Fort Worth, Arlington, Denton and Grand Prairie to recycle any electronics that consumers bring to their dump sites, Jones said. That arrangement costs the city nothing for its e-waste recycling and allows Goodwill to expand its collection efforts beyond its 17 area stores.

Other drop-off stations in the Goodwill program include Arlington’s landfill at 800 Mosier Valley Road and three sites in Fort Worth: 5150 Martin Luther King Jr. Freeway, 2400 Brennan Ave. and 6260 Old Hemphill Road.

“It’s no charge to consumers, and they’ll get a donation receipt from us,” Jones said.

Jones said his staff will erase the computer’s hard drive of any stored data three times before refurbishing or recycling it.

“If we can’t do it electronically, we’ll drill a hole through the hard drive,” he said. Dell also randomly inspects recycled items to make sure information is deleted, Jones added.

Much of the old equipment is resold through Goodwill stores, Jones said. If it can’t be refurbished, it is torn down to its components and distributed to recyclers. Metal from computers, flash drives and monitors is sent back to Dell, which pays Goodwill a processing fee.

Lack of awareness of electronic-recycling programs is a big problem, said Kim Mote, Fort Worth’s assistant director of environmental management.

“A lot of people hold on to their old electronics,” he said. “They’re not sure what to do with them.”

But enough are getting dumped to make it the nation’s fastest-growing consumer waste stream, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

“There are a lot of hazardous materials in electronics,” Mote said. “Older monitors have a lot of lead in their cabinets. Computers have plastic flame-resistant chemicals that break down. There’s cadmium and mercury. They come into landfills and get crushed and broken down, buried and then can leach into the soil and groundwater. It’s stuff you don’t want in our landfills.”

The TCE Fund report recommends that the Legislature expand the law in 2011 to require manufacturers to take back equipment from small businesses and school districts as well as add a TV take-back requirement. A bill for TVs was passed in 2009 but vetoed by Gov. Rick Perry.

*One point of clarification: twenty states plus NYC already passed their legislation (though not all twenty have implemented the program yet), with an additional nine considering takeback legislation this year.