State Legislation on E-Waste

States That Have Passed E-Waste Laws

States are taking action to solve the e-waste crisis. Ten states plus New York City have passed laws creating statewide e-waste recycling programs. All except California are "producer responsibility" laws, requiring manufacturers to pay for recycling.

See bills under consideration in 2008.

Details on State E-Waste Laws

Chart showing brief comparison of ten state laws: Comparison Chart

Detailed comparison of ten state e-waste laws: Detailed Comparison (Virginia not yet added)

States who have passed e-waste disposal bans.

Many states have passed laws banning e-waste from landfills and/or incinerators. More info.

Legislative Toolkit

View our legislative toolkit for a series of fact sheets on the e-waste issue, legislative solutions, and bill analysis.

State E-Waste Bills in 2008

Laws passed in 2008
New York City is the first US city to pass a mandatory producer responsibility ordinance. The law was approved by the New York City Council on Feb 13, 2008.
New Jersey passed the first state e-waste bill in 2008, on Jan 15, 2008.
Virginia passed a law on March 11, 2008. It covers computer equipment, but not television.
West Virginia's Governor signed their new e-waste law on April 1.

Bills being considered in the states in 2008
Producer responsibility bills are under consideration in 13 states in 2008.
Our list of bills under consideration in 2008 gives a brief discription of each bill in play, with status and links.

Legislative Models For State Laws

There are two basic models that states use:

Producer Responsibility
This is sometimes called EPR or Extended Producer Responsibility, which means that the product manufacturers take responsibility for their products once they are ready for disposal. The manufacturers pay for collection and recycling of the products.

The Electronics TakeBack Coalition supports this approach, because by giving the manufacturers financial responsibility for their obsolete products, we also give them an incentive to make their products with less toxic materials, and therefore cheaper to recycle.

All states with e-waste recycling laws except California have chosen this model.


ARF - Advanced Recycling Fee
The ARF model charges the consumer a recycling fee at retail, which goes into a statewide recycling fund, that the state uses to reimburse recycling costs. The manufacturers have no responsibility under this approach. Only California has adopted this model.

View fact sheet: EPR vs ARF

Read more about Extended Producer Responsibility

Model bills

Regional Efforts on Drafting Legislation

States worked together in two regional in the country recently to formulate model bills that could be consistent between states.

Northeast Region. Ten states (Maine to Delaware) participated in a regional effort led by the Northeast Recycling Council (NERC) and the Council of State Governments (CSG). They have drafted a model bill (using Producer Responsibility concepts) which was introduced in several states for 2007. More information and model bill are available on the CSG website.

Midwest Region. Seven midwestern states met to explore regional bill language. The group developed a list of governing concepts (supporting producer responsibility). They are using the current Minnesota bill as their model bill language.
View Midwest states' website.

Essential Elements of E-Waste Recycling Legislation

What Products Are Covered?

Broad Scope of Products. Consumers are more likely to use programs that accept all of the items they have for disposal. Define scope to include a wide range of electronic products, including computers, laptops, monitors, TVs, printers, computer peripherals, TV peripherals, cell phones, personal electronics, games, audio electronics, etc; Anticipate new gadgetry likely to come on the market and how new categories will be added.

All sales channels. System must apply to all brand owners regardless of sales channels (so that internet sales are included).

Legacy Waste and Orphan Waste. System must include responsibility for our stockpiles of so-called “legacy waste,” electronic equipment sold and discarded before the effective date of the legislation as well as “orphan waste,” discarded electronic equipment produced by companies who are no longer in business (or unknown).

Whose Products are Covered?

Consumers and small business and organizations. The goal for legislation is to cover the entities that are NOT already using asset recovery programs for their old electronics. Large companies, governments, agencies tend to have programs in place. Bills should cover everyone else, including consumers, small business, small governments, small school districts, and small non-profits.

Producer Responsibility – Not Taxpayer Financed

Producer Paid Financing. Legislation should require development and implementation of a system of brand owner/producer financial responsibility for the environmentally superior collection, transportation, and recycling of discarded electronic equipment, including the option for companies to manage their own individual takeback programs. We recognize that producers will incorporate the recycling costs into their pricing structure, and that consumers will ultimately pay for it. But giving producers the financial obligation up front (as opposed to the consumer fee approach) gives them the incentive to recycle efficiently, and to design their product to be easier (and cheaper) to recycle. Charging a fee when the consumer disposes of the product is a barrier to recycling, so recycling must be free at disposal time.

No Taxpayer Liability or Unfunded Local Government Mandate . Local government and taxpayers should not bear costs for collection, handling, transportation, storage, recycling, and disposal of discarded electronics. System should allow local governments to maintain collection and recycling programs if they want, but shouldn’t mandate this. Companies selling electronics can pay fees that cover costs of regulatory oversight.

Performance Measures.

Effective legislation must set performance measures and time tables for the manufacturers for meeting these performance goals. Goals could be phased in after programs have been up and running for a while, but they are the key to driving continued increases in recycling volumes.

Performance could be measured in one of several ways, including:

• Collection, recovery and recycling of a percentage of the brand owners products sold;
• Collection, recovery and recycling of an amount per person based on the population of the state in question (e.g., 4 kilograms per person per year);

Responsible Recycling and Reuse

Promote Reuse. System should make a priority of encouraging reuse and refurbishment over shredding for recycling. Companies that collect items and refurbish them could receive additional credit toward their annual recycling obligations.

Recycling Performance, Hazardous Waste Management, and Export. Effective legislation should, to the extent possible, prohibit export of hazardous e-waste to developing (non-OECD/EU) countries for both recycling and disposal. States can establish rules that require primary processors and all their downstream vendors for specified materials to create and implement a hazardous materials identification and management plan. These plans should address how they will prevent human health or environmental risk, how workers and surrounding communities are protected, and how the processor will notify secondary processors about these materials and hold them accountable for the proper management of these materials. Documentation must include the tracking of chain of custody of these hazardous components and substances to the point of recycling or final disposal, and documentation that they have been handled according to all local, state, and national laws and the laws of any recipient and transit countries.

No Prison Labor. The federal government’s wholly owned prison-run business – UNICOR – includes an electronics recycling division, that pays inmates from 25 cents to $1.25 per hour. This business undercuts our own domestic recycling businesses, which need to thrive in order to create a long-term solution to e-waste recycling. UNICOR’s recycling business also has a history of serious health and safety problems; the U.S. Office of Special Counsel recently ordered an independent investigation into possible toxic exposure of prisoners and staff.

Additional Elements

Toxics Reduction . Allow products to be sold in state only if they do not exceed the maximum allowable levels of toxic materials regulated under the European Union’s ROHS Directive.

Disposal Bans. Ban electronic equipment from landfills and incinerators.

State Procurement . Establish procurement requirements for public agencies’ electronics purchases, relating to product specifications and end of life product management.

View PDF version of Essential Elements language