Canada raises the bar for responsible electronics recycling

The standards are high to ensure protection of the environment, worker health and safety, and regulatory compliance. This approach, which has been vetted by a broad range of stakeholders, uses third-party audits to ensure that none of Canada's electronic scrap is exported to third world nations, to protect the health and safety of the recycling staff, to prevent the use of prison labor, and to ensure that e-waste no longer ends up in landfills.

The RVQP was developed in 2003 by EPSC's Recycling Vendor Qualification Committee, and has been refined a number of times since, including the addition of lessons learned from a pilot project with Computers for Schools. The committee of leading manufacturers drew on their own expertise, as well as input from a wide range of stakeholders, and incorporated solutions to concerns that were raised by regulators, NGOs and recyclers to refine this initiative. "The vendor qualification program is at the heart of why we as manufacturers and brand owners stepped up to be responsible environmental stewards," explained Nick Aubry, of Sony Canada and EPSC's RVQP committee chair.

Lauren Roman, MaSer Corporation, an electronics recycler based in Southern Ontario, sees this as an important step forward: ". . . the Recycling Standard is essential for consumers of electronics recycling services to help distinguish between recycling operations that are environmentally and socially responsible and those that are not. I believe the RVQP can be used as a model for other nations. I know of some organizations in the U.S. that are trying to develop standards, which have certainly used the EPS model as part of what they're trying to accomplish. There is no point in reinventing the wheel."

The RVQP contains two documents — the Electronics Recycling Standard, and the Guidance Document. The Electronics Recycling Standard defines the minimum requirements for managing end-of-life electronics (EOLE). This standard is intended to assist in determining if these products are managed in an environmentally sound manner that safeguards worker health and safety and the environment from the point of primary processing to final disposition.

The standard addresses general requirements for primary recyclers and downstream processors, covering occupational health and safety, material separation, mechanical processing, electronics scrap materials, hazardous materials, and operations using smelting, foundry and other forms of heat treatment including waste-to-energy facilities.

"The standard has a transparent vision. In Alberta, we are built upon EPS standards, and we definitely embrace such issues because it raises the bar for electronics recycling," said Garry Powers, president, eCycle Solutions, a certified electronics recycler in Alberta.

The Guidance Document is developed to serve as an educational document on the environmental, legal, health and safety hazards associated with end-of-life electronics. The document allows recyclers to develop environmentally sound recycling processes. It provides environmental auditors with a knowledge base for conducting assessments of electronics recyclers.

The RVQP involves an application process, a preliminary review and an on-site audit. Once a vendor is qualified, the RVQP remains in effect for two years, and then an audit review will be required to re-qualify the vendor for another two years. Look for the program to be front and center as industry-led stewardship programs for electronics roll-out in the coming months in both Saskatchewan and British Columbia.

Sarah Westervelt of the Basel Action Network (BAN), a leading NGO in this field, thinks the RVQP hits the mark. "EPSC is a good example of how OEMs in Canada are taking steps to address issues of toxicity and recyclability. We applaud the recycling standards EPSC has defined for responsible management of recycled equipment."