(re) blog: dialogue with Redemtech

Time to Stop Supporting Organizations That Don’t Represent the Long Term Interests of Their Members

As the debate over competing e-waste certifications continues, each side has positioned themselves into separate philosophies and business models. One has a pragmatic approach, a thought process about managing e-waste as standard metallurgical scrap metals grades. In this view, if it’s resource abundant and has commodity market value, it’s simply a question of buying and selling. The other side has a more progressive thought process, which entails controlling and accounting for e-waste toxin streams and ensuring that associated toxins don’t reach uncontrolled processes. By uncontrolled, I mean processes without safety procedures and pollution control equipment, in facilities that do not historically have enforceable regulatory environment surrounding heavy-metal melting processes. (Read Redemtech’s comparison of BAN’s e-Stewards Standard and ISRI’s R2 Standard here.)

A Vivid Reminder of How Integrated We Are

We all talk about global integration so often that it sometimes ceases to be real for us. In the news, the subject is everywhere, most recently in the coverage of how seemingly isolated financial problems in small nations such as Greece soon cause financial contagion around the world.

Becoming an e-Steward for Your Native Country

I was all set to pick up from my last item and talk about what makes up the corporate computer, but last week I attended a briefing during my first-ever visit to the state of Washington, and I feel I just need to vent a little about the two new standards in this industry, R2 and e-Stewards. (Get a comparison of ISRI’s R2 standard and BAN’s e-Stewards Standard here.) I won’t mention the name of the giant software company I visited, because you can probably guess which one it might be.

Basel Action Network's E-Stewards Certification Program

Basel Action Network (BAN), a Seattle-based environmental nonprofit which has a mission to stop the illegal export of electronic waste from the United States, has just launched a new standard and certification program called e-Stewards. The new program is for electronics recyclers and companies that generate volumes of e-waste.

Momentum Building for e-Stewards Standard

In the weeks since the e-Stewards Electronics Recycling Standard launch on April 15 (listen to the press conference audio recording here), we have received a great deal of positive feedback from our customers, prospects and other key stakeholders. The response validates our view that the e-Stewards Standard is good news for every enterprise concerned with fulfilling the best intentions embodied in its corporate e-waste recycling policy.