But, because state e-waste laws vary, the effectiveness of the laws in regulating environmental and health harms can differ. Every state with e-waste regulation laws, expect Utah and California, use the Producer Responsibility approach to hold manufacturers accountable by making them fund e-waste recycling. So far, 25 states have enacted legislation to regulate statewide e-waste recycling initiatives, which means 65% of the population must uphold their state's e-waste recycling policies. Despite attempts to push federal e-waste bills forward, which stem as far back as the 1990s, US states have held the most legislative agency on e-waste. When electronic products stop functioning, they are either incinerated, landfilled, or recycled to salvage materials and protect public health and the environment by removing its toxic materials. has not enacted a federal law to regulate the domestic recycling of e-waste, but, some states are implementing policies to address its increasing accumulation. This event sparked some of the current efforts to regulate the flows of electronic waste and ensure the health and safety of the global environment. Eventually, much of the toxic waste was dumped into the Indian Ocean. In 1986, a cargo vessel carrying 14,000 tons of toxic waste left Philadelphia and traveled around the world for more than five months continually being turned away from areas where it attempted to dump its contents. The RCRA gives the EPA the ability to regulate the flow of hazardous waste for the entire lifetime of the product, including development, transport, and disposal. A major amendment to SWDA was the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), passed by Congress in 1976. The Solid Waste Disposal Act (SWDA) was passed by Congress in 1965. Up until 1965, there was no federal legislation regulating the disposal of solid and hazardous waste in the United States. In 2018, an association of European electronic recyclers based in Brussels called the WEEE Forum, created International E-Waste Day on October 13, with the support of 19 e-waste companies globally, in order to raise awareness about how large of an issue e-waste has become. In a 2020 survey of people between the ages of 18 and 38, 60% did not know what the term "e-waste" is, and 57% did not consider electronic waste to be "a significant contributor to toxic waste." With electronic recycling options readily available in most states, the issue seems to be awareness, not availability. Lack of awareness for e-waste issues is also a problem in the U.S., especially among young people. The EPA estimates that in 2009, the United States disposed of 2.37 million tons of e-waste, 25% of which was recycled domestically. United States e-waste management includes recycling and reuse programs, domestic landfill dumping, and international shipments of domestically produced e-waste. According to the United States EPA, toxic substances such as lead, mercury, arsenic, and cadmium are often released into the environment and endanger whole communities these toxic contaminants can have detrimental effects on the health of ecosystems and living organisms. E-waste management is critical due to the toxic chemicals present in electronic devices. The National Strategy for Electronic Stewardship was co-founded by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), and the General Services Administration (GSA), and was introduced in 2011 to focus on federal action to establish electronic stewardship in the United States. The United States does not have an official federal e-waste regulation system, yet certain states have implemented state regulatory systems. Electronics are the primary users of precious and special metals, retrieving those metals from electronics can be viewed as important as raw metals may become more scarce There is also an economic factor that has an effect on where and how e-waste is disposed of. Only recently has the United States begun to make an effort to start regulating where e-waste goes and how it is disposed of. The United States is the world leader in producing the most e-waste, followed closely by China both countries domestically recycle and export e-waste. Used electronics are the quickest-growing source of waste and can have serious health impacts. Cathode ray tube monitors being packed for shipping.Įlectronic waste or e-waste in the United States refers to electronic products that have reached the end of their operable lives, and the United States is beginning to address its waste problems with regulations at a state and federal level.
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