Barrack Obama to tackle e-waste and hazardous materials in Electronics

Barack Obama has made the environment a priority in his administration. And the electronics industry will likely feel the impact as the new president of the United States changes federal environmental policies.

Exactly where, when, and how such changes will affect electronics is anybody’s guess. But industry watchers interviewed by Electronic Business see the possibility of more federal regulation as well as market opportunities created by new spending programs.

During his campaign, Obama expressed support for federal laws regulating electronic-waste (e-waste) disposal and reducing the use of toxic chemicals in manufacturing products. “We can also challenge manufacturers of computers, printers and other electronic equipment to more effectively take back these products when they are discarded so that their components can be reused rather than shipped to landfills,” he told Discover Magazine in September 2008. So whay is this so important to Eurpoe and our WEEE? In effect, it will reduce the hazzardous wastes produced during the recycling process, meaning that treatment will become cleaner and more efficient, cutting future costs and ensuring more raw resources are returned to the manufacturing process.

With most Computer manufacturers being based in the US and exporting designs to their manufacturing plants in Europe, many hazardous materials will be cut out of the manufactring process, making electronics products sold in Eurpoe cleaner.

However, interest groups have grabbed hold of this public statement as evidence that Obama will push for new federal e-waste regulation. The most likely scenario is a federal law banning e-waste exports. The problem of shady recyclers shipping old computers and electronics to places like China and India, where they are disassembled by poor people who are then exposed to hazardous materials, drew increased public scrutiny late last year.

Chemical controls

Related to and yet separate from the e-waste issue is how to deal with toxic materials that are designed into electronics. Mike Kirschner, president and managing partner of Design Chain Associates LLC, thinks the Obama Administration will try to revamp the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to make it more restrictive. Pressure to reform the 32-year-old law has been building in large part because of the European Union’s implementation of the REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals) directive, he said. “We’ll see the fed give the EPA more power to restrict and control substances and their applications,” he predicted. “Industry is already gearing up for that battle.”

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