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Wyden testifies before the Senate Committee
on Environment and Public Works
Subcommittee on Superfund and Waste Management
July 26, 2005
Senator Wyden’s prepared
testimony follows:
U.S. Senator Ron Wyden
Prepared Testimony before the Senate Committee on Environment
and Public Works
Subcommittee on Superfund and Waste Management
Mr. Chairman, America is a computer-dependent
society. I’m willing to bet that before coming to this hearing,
almost every person in this room used a computer to write a document,
to check e-mail, or to read the news. Yet as much as we depend
on our computers, we seldom think about what they’re made
of. Let me tell you.
The desktop computer in your
office right now contains about 14 pounds of plastic, 4 pounds
of lead, 8.5 pounds of aluminum, more than 12 pounds of iron,
half a pound of nickel and lesser amounts of arsenic, cadmium,
mercury, titanium, zinc, beryllium and gold. There’s mercury
in LCD and gas plasma screens, lead in monitors and circuit boards,
cadmium in chip resistors and semiconductors and heavy metals
in CPUs. And every year, millions of newly obsolete computers
– and televisions, and other electronic trash or e-waste
– are discarded to the tune of 2.2 million tons. Those 2.2
million tons of e-trash are the equivalent of 219 Boeing 737 jetliners.
If handled improperly, this hazardous stew of toxic e-waste can
poison water supplies, people and the environment. But there is
a better way.
Today, barely one in 10 computers
gets recycled or reused. Compare that to old cars: 94 percent
goes to scrap yards where useable parts are reclaimed, and the
rest of the material is shredded, compacted and recycled into
appliances, cars and other products.
Senator Talent and I believe
that the United States can put less e-waste in the landfill and
more in the recycling bin. We have proposed S. 510, a pro-consumer,
pro-environment and pro-technology bill to jumpstart a nationwide
recycling infrastructure for electronic waste. Our bipartisan
approach is the first to rely on incentives, rather than upfront
fees or end-of-life penalties, to deal with electronic waste.
Our legislation offers incentives to consumers and small businesses
to get their old computers and laptops out of the closet and into
the e-waste stream. Our legislation offers manufacturers, retailers
and recyclers incentives to recycle e-waste. The bill has the
support of retailers, electronics manufacturers, and environmental
recyclers.
Specifically, our legislation
would:
• Establish an $8 per
unit tax credit for companies that recycle at least 5,000 display
screens or computer system units per year;
• Establish a $15 tax
credit for consumers who recycle their old computers and tv’s,
provided they use qualified recyclers;
• Prohibit the disposal
in a municipal solid waste landfill of any electronic equipment
with a display screen larger than 4 inches or any computer system
unit, beginning three years after the bill passes if EPA finds
that the majority of U.S. households have reasonable access to
e-waste recycling;
• Modify EPA’s universal
waste rule to classify screens and system units as “universal
wastes” to allow for easier collection, processing, transportation
and recycling;
• Require Federal executive
agencies to recycle or reuse their display screens and CPUs; and
• Direct EPA to recommend
to Congress the feasibility of establishing a nationwide e-waste
recycling program that would preempt any state plan within one
year.
We do not claim to have a monopoly
on the wisdom for how e-waste should be recycled, and so the tax
credit is limited to 3 years. Our goal is to get a recycling infrastructure
launched, and in the meantime, have EPA look at various options,
at what various states are doing and come up with recommendations
for Congress for a nationwide e-waste recycling plan.
The bill recognizes that states
like California have already put a plan in place, and that many
other states, like Oregon, are moving in that direction. But if
every state and hundreds of municipalities and counties take different
paths to solve the e-waste problem, the country will end up with
a hodge podge of rules and regulations. Companies and consumers
who are keen on doing the right thing will be confused, innovation
will be stifled and not a lot of recycling would get done. One
nationwide program seems to make the most sense.
Last week the New York Times
carried a story about computers so infected with spyware and adware
that they are on life support. Rather than going through the painstaking
process of debugging them, consumers opt to toss them out and
pay several hundred dollars for a new one. Unless some miracle
cure is found, the spyware plague is not going away anytime soon,
and the number of discarded computers will grow.
Then there’s the transition
to digital television, which could pull the plug on analog television
sets in 21 million American households. The hand-over of the old
analog channels could take place in the next 4-5 years. Unless
the U.S. gets serious about recycling electronic trash, what is
going to happen to all those old tv sets?
It is not very often Congress
has the chance to get a jumpstart on solving a problem. This is
one place where a bipartisan effort can make a real difference.
I look forward to working with you to get a nationwide electronic
waste recycling program launched.
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