HP Wants Manufacturers To Bear PC Disposal Costs

Makarand writes "The Mercury News is reporting that HP, which had earlier persuaded the Governor to veto an innovative e-waste measure, has changed its mind and is throwing its weight behind California's e-waste bill which would require PC manufacturers to bear the cost of PC disposal. This reversal by HP is close upon the heels of a a series of articles, carried by the Mercury News, detailing how the industry relied on cheap overseas labor to make a profits and at the same time distanced itself from the responsibilities of dead PC disposal."

Comments

recycling PCBs and other components

[andymac]

From a seminar on lead-free solder from IPC:

• 50-80% of "e-waste" is shipped to Asia (China, India, Pakistan)
  
• The US has NOT signed the Basel Convention (1994) on hazardous waste (the convention signatories agree to not ship hazardous waste overseas/out of the country w/o some basic pre-processing of the waste)
  
• The US electronics industry accounts for 2% of world's annual lead consuption. The majority of this is for lead in solder for printed Wire Boards (PWB) manufacturing and assembly. However this does not account for overseas manufacturing which is done for a huge # of US companies (i.e.: assembly offshore makes this 2% look low, but if you tracked the % tied to all US based/HQ'd firms, you'd probably see closer to 50% - this is just a SWAG onmy part here, no data).
  
• The EU passed the Restriction of Use of Hazardous Materials directive (RoHS) which prohibits the use of lead from manufacturing & assembly of PWBs. This comes into effect in 2006. This means any electronics sold into EU on Jan 1 2006 must be 100% lead-solder free.
  
• EU is also pushing Waste Electrical and Electronic (WEEE) directive. If passed, EU member countries can in fact put in place more restrictive laws.
  
• HP has a publicly stated position on the issue of RoHS and WEEE that puts almost all of the onus on their supply chain partners to meet the directives.
  

Why am I giving you all this information? Because this is not a simple recycling problem, period. This goes all the way back to the root: electronics manufacturing and assemblt of PWBs. The EU is flexing their muscles by pushing the RoHS and WEEE directives. HP has been planning for these two directives since they were scheduled for a vote in the EU (and RoHS has since been passed). The entire time their plan has been to push it down to the supply chain parnters. This has not changed in over a year, nor will it going forward. Why should it? With HP's purchasing power, they say "jump" and their suppliers say "how high, SIR!"