ENVIRONMENT

Europe
Cracks Down
On E-Waste
May 2002
IEEE SPECTRUM

New policy stirs alarm among corporate executives, hope

among environmentalists, and creativity among engineers
46

E
lectronic waste in Europe is growing so
fast that it will double between 1998 and
2010, according to European Union docu-
ments. And in 1998 it already measured in
the region of six million metric tons. The
pace of its accumulation worries public of-
ficials because e-waste contains lead and
other chemicals that can, to quote electronics recycling entre-
preneur Simon Greer, literally send you bonkers if they leak
into water supplies. As consumers and businesses dump their
old computers, regulators are scrambling to steer machines
and their parts out of landfills.
While this spreading scrap threatens towns around the
world, the European Union is preparing a broad response.
Or trying to. It will soon issue a Waste from Electrical and
Electronic Equipment directive, requiring manufacturers to
take machines back for free and to recycle 65 percent of their
average weight. The European Parliament passed the direc-
tiveabbreviated as WEEE and pronounced like the scream
of a child riding a roller coasteron 10 April, one step in the
process. Member states of the union will soon consider it;
they could ratify the directive, which is akin to law, as early
as this fall. WEEE is set to take full effect by 2008.
The directives recycling targets, says Melissa Shinn, a pol-
icy advocate for an environmentalist association called the
European Environmental Bureau (Brussels, Belgium), will
really make a producer think about what happens to a prod-
uct at the end of its life. To avoid penalties, Shinn expects
manufacturers to apply this thinking to more efficient design.
Probably design improvements will be explicitly addressed
in a sister piece of legislation that Shinn says is now in the
works. But if the WEEE rules encourage manufacturers to
make machines that are cheaper to disassemble and easier to
break down, they will probably stoke design improvements as
well. Key logistical questionslike who brings what to where
for recyclingalso remain undetermined. Whatever its final
contours, however, the directive may bring business opportu-
nities to engineers who can glean marketable commodities
from a computers plastics and metals.
Because few such engineers are in plain sight, manufac-
turers are fighting to make the WEEE as gentle as possible.
Townsend Feehan, a spokeswoman for the European Infor-
mation, Communications and Consumer Electronics Tech-
nology Industry Association (EICTA, also in Brussels), warns
that manufacturers may sack factory workers if WEEE
imposes costs that manufacturers cannot charge off easily,
BISSON BERNARD/CORBIS SYGMA
such as mandatory contributions to a recycling fund or bills for
recycling computers made by defunct companies. The laws
eventual structure could promote better design, force more
attention to logistics, or simply make computers more expen-
sive. In that light, environmentalists are watching negotia-
tions warily, and engineers who have struggled to promote
their recycling inventions are champing at the bit.
BY ALEC APPELBAUM
Contributing Editor
Two years ago Derek Fray, head of the materials science and
metallurgy department at the University of Cambridge (UK),
tried unsuccessfully to market a method for removing lead and
precious metals from printed-circuit boards. After earning a
United Kingdom patent in February, the soft-spoken Fray claims
to be inundated with inquiries from the likes of Motorola
Inc. (Schaumburg, Ill.) and Nokia Corp. (Espoo, Finland). And
none too soon. There is no longer an industrial base for met-
allurgy in most of Great Britain, says Fray, although the WEEE
initiative will open up lots of opportunities.
What is WEEE?
In March, the Council of the European Union, which consists
of state ministers from each country in the union, disputed the
popularly elected European Parliament on numerous questions
about how companies will collect and recycle their goods.
Among the issues discussed were whether households must
separate their e-waste, whether smaller businesses should be
exempt, and whether manufacturers must cover their own costs
or pay into a recycling fund for the entire industry. This last
question is a pivotal one.
Most manufacturers hate the idea of so-called collective
responsibility, fearing that lazy companies will freeload on
the research done by industrious companies. You ought to
reap rewards if you can design in a way that promotes recy-
cling, argues trade association spokesperson Feehan. The
draft law parliament approved in April favors individual
responsibility for most hardware, but leaves the industry col-
lectively responsible for recycling orphaned machines.
In response, manufacturers in Europe are likely to charge
more for products. In Japan, laws require consumers to pay
extra fees when they dispose of their appliances [see Japan:
Serious Business, p. 51]. In the United States, IBM Corp.
(Armonk, N.Y.) and Hewlett-Packard Co. (Palo Alto, Calif.) charge
between US $13 and $30 to take back anybodys machines. [See
Recycling in the United States: The Promised Landfill, p. 50.]
To avoid provoking manufacturers into conflict, the Euro-
pean Union will have to tread carefully. While most big U.S.
firms take back machines in some European countries, they
are philosophically committed to doing so on their own terms.
On 19 March, a U.S. consortium called the National Elec-
tronic Product Stewardship Initiative trumpeted a commit-
ment from 12 manufacturers (plus Microsoft, Sun Microsys-
tems, and the Electronic Industries Alliance) to a future regime
IEEE SPECTRUM
in which some purchase-related charge would fund recycling
efforts. But this commitment is light on specifics.
Whatever its mechanics, the legislation will require invest-
ment in new processes. Entrepreneurs would do well to solve
e-recyclings biggest puzzle: how to shred computers into safe,
May 2002
marketable commodities.
Today, e-recycling involves more grunt work than chemistry.
(It also often refers to dismantling and reselling rather than
reusing old materials in new machines.) Dozens of firms across 47
 ENVIRONMENT

Working monitors and

How Recycling A decision is made to

dispose of a computer
or monitor.
CPUs can be donated
to schools or other
nonprofits.

Works

Disassembly
Hard-to-repair or significantly Chips removed from the circuit
outofdate machines board can be tested and resold.
can be recycled. Faulty or useless chips are sent
to smelter for precious
metals reclamation.

Shredding

Metals from
circuit board
go to smelter
for reclamation.

Pulverized
Pure glass front panels glass is
are crushed by shredder. made into
new glass.

Plastics are reprocessed

Plastic shells are shredded, usually become landfill. for use as fence posts,
pothole filler.
Lead-containing cathoderaytube glass is sent to a smelter for processing.

Recyclers often take computers apart by parts are sorted into what can be resold left]. Recycling firms like Bruce Metals
handa good worker can do the disas- [top, far right] and what must simply be (Sheffield, UK) use filters and screens to
sembly [above] in 10 minutes or less, shredded, like plastics and metals, or pul- separate the precious metals and alu-
more efficiently than any machine. The verized, like glass [above, second from minum of shredded circuit boards from

Europe dismantle machines by hand, sell used machines and manager at Datec Technologies Ltd. (Irvine, Scotland). Recov-
parts, or shred machines for scrap or eventual landfill [see How ered materials, he explains, may retain bits of lead, paper, or
May 2002

Recycling Works, above]. Recycling electronics is relatively alien plastic that make them less reliable than virgin stock.
straightforward, says Mark Wolle, director of Precious Metals Many firms resell what they can to schools and late
Industries Ltd. (Neath, Wales). Its just a question of weighing up adopters. But when these customers outgrow their appetite for
IEEE SPECTRUM

costs and benefits and deciding whether you want to recycle. 486 PCs and bulky monitors, companies will need a way of
Under WEEE, manufacturers will have to recycle some preparing old components for new uses.
65 percent of their components. Companies might chafe less
BRYAN CHRISTIE

at the idea of funding curbside collection if they believed they The lead problem
could make money recycling parts they currently throw away. Lead, contained in the solder on printed-circuit boards and in
48 Offering a gloomy assessment is Harry Mackie, recycling cathode-ray tubes, becomes a problem in shredding. Large
 Refurbishment Resale
Nonworking machines
that can be fixed
easily are sent back
to makers or to third
party refurbishers; then
they are fixed and resold.

Smelter Landfill

Precious metals
(gold, silver)
are recaptured.

Waste from smelter becomes landfill.

the lead; metals are sent to smelters for ally want pure materials. Ingenious out- fence posts and park benches. Clean
refining [above, third from left]. Plastics fits like Conigliaro Industries (Framing- glass unmixed with the leaded glass of
are very tricky, because computers use ham, Mass.) converts plastic into pothole the cathode-ray tube can be resold. The
various kinds and commodity buyers usu- filler; recycled plastics are also used in rest is landfill [above, right].

firms like Royal Philips Electronics (Amsterdam, the Nether- solves lead/tin solders without damaging a boards precious
lands) and STMicroelectronics (Geneva, Switzerland) are start- metals. An electric current through the solution plates out the
IEEE SPECTRUM

ing to build circuit boards with other materials. But even as
lead-free circuit boards enter the market, leaded circuit boards
will be a hefty part of the waste stream for years to come.
Some smaller entrepreneurs, however, are offering ways to
harmlessly recycle lead-containing printed-circuit boards and
lead and tin off the circuit board while the precious metals are
unaffected. All elementscircuits, copper, lead, and tinemerge
pure enough to stockpile and sell to smelters or manufacturers.
Lead also lurks in cathode-ray tubes, where it protects
against radiation, making it risky to resell shredded glass from
May 2002

monitors. Cambridge Universitys Fray is selling a chemical monitors. Recycling entrepreneur Greer, who is co-head of a
process that removes solder from printed-circuit boards and Manchester start-up called NuLife Glass Ltd. (Wilmslow, UK),
enables a worker to collect microprocessors off the boards for aims to get TV and computer makers to pay him for separat-
resale. As Fray describes it, his team developed a leachant that dis- ing lead from glass in a furnace he has devised. Some man- 49
 ENVIRONMENT

ufacturers have said to me they will never use [glass recycled
from the front of a cathode-ray tube] because the slightest
impurities could ruin the lot, claims Greer. He says NuLifes
furnaces will exploit chemical and physical properties of lead
and glass to separate them cleanly. He and his partner aim to
start corralling TVs and monitors around the world.
Plastics, son, plastics
Computers combine between three and 10 plastics to create a
desired strength, weight, appearance, and lubricity. But when
these plastics mix in shredding, they produce what one engi-
neer calls gunka useless amalgam.
Moreover, even a paper label bearing a corporate logo can
make recycled plastic weaker than virgin stock. (Real poisons
may lie in flame-retardants, which the European Union is pur-
suing under separate legislation.) The directives recovery target,
which could end up as high as 80 percent, will require rapid
improvements in the technology.
Today, sorting plastics is time-consuming and costly.
Because the four plastics that dominate computer casings
acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), high-impact polystyrene,
polycarbonate, and an ABS/polycarbonate blendare hard to
distinguish by sight, many engineers are trying to popularize
more ingenious means of separating them. Mike Biddle, chief
executive officer of recycling-engineering firm MBA Polymers
Inc. (Richmond, Calif.), says small recyclers often guess a
pieces composition from its use, how it smells, or what kind
of flame it gives off when burned. But these unreliable and
dangerous processes can in no way approach the WEEEs
recovery targets.
Biddles company separates shredded plastic in three
stages. It uses magnets and separators to get rid of metals, then
air to separate fiber, paper, and foamthe same technology
used for generations to separate wheat from chaff, says Bid-
dle. The process yields mixed plastic flakes, which proprietary
tools, including optical sorters that distinguish colors, separate
by toying with their physical and mechanical properties. Today
MBA has a demonstration facility, in Richmond, Calif. It suf-
fered a business setback after a subcontractors error caused
one death in a fire in 2000. But Biddle boasts of an investment

Recycling in the United States:

The Promised Landfill
H
ewlett-Packard, IBM, and
Apple run viable take-
back programs in Europe,
and IBM once demonstrated a
computer housed entirely in
recycled plastics. But the only
company to do any free take-
back in the United States is
Sony Corp. (Tokyo). So far, U.S.
e-recycling involves discre-
tionary programs and limited
results. Yet 500 million PCs
may become obsolete in the
United States by 2007, accord- Plastic monitor cases go into a shredder for recycling [left]. Discarded U.S. monitors often find
ing to a 1999 National Safety their way to China [right], where they are smashed to free their copper yokes, a hazardous
Council study that began track- process: workers inhale toxic phosphor dust, and groundwater becomes contaminated with lead.
ing the machines in 1997.
State governments are tentatively de- tancy Wuf Technologies (Concord, N.H.), record a mixed ecological blessing. U.S.
LEFT: WUF TECHNOLOGIES

veloping firmer e-recycling laws. Massa- says that public e-waste policy doesnt recycling firms often sell scrap to brokers
chusetts banned cathode-ray tubes (CRTs) seem to be tied in any meaningful way to who ship it to Southeast Asia, according to a
from landfills in 2000. Other states have producer responsibility. recent report from the Silicon Valley Toxics
May 2002

shown similar interest, but Massachusetts
experiment proved costly. In the bans first
year, according to Solid Waste Report, a
IEEE SPECTRUM
Thats not for lack of available technology. Coalition (San Jose, Calif.) and the Basel
Besides MBA Polymers Inc.(Richmond, Calif.), Action Network (Seattle, Wash.). The latters
which aims to become a global operation, Jim Puckett visited China and saw workers
RIGHT: BASEL ACTION NETWORK

trade journal, the state had to exceed its
budget for grants to recycling operators by
76 percent. If producers had to cover the
costs of reclaiming CRTs, Massachusetts
might be out less money. But Mark Lennon,
50 chief executive officer of recycling consul-
and large shops like Envirocycle (Hallstead,
Pa.), many small recycling firms operate on
the East Coast. DMC Recycling Inc. (New-
fields, N.H.) claims it can recycle 60 million
kilograms of electronic equipment each year.
But federal waste policy makes this
destroying CRTs without doing anything to
prevent hazardous materials from entering
groundwater. Unless laws impose stricter
producer responsibility, says Lennon, U.S.
e-recycling may damage the environment
more than many realize. A.A.
 from contract manufacturer Flextronics Corp. (Singapore)
and promises to start serving European companies soon.
Manufacturers are increasingly designing machines from
other materials. The Sony Vaio notebook is encased in
recyclable magnesium alloys; the Apple PowerBook G4
case is titanium. In another venture, Charles L. Beatty, a
tude prevails in Europes business lobby, companies may
invest the minimum required to meet recycling targets.
Consumers can influence the WEEEs outcome, too.
They may race to buy new machines before recycling
TO PROBE
FURTHER, surcharges hit, the way consumers did in Japan. Or a
SEE PAGE 79 critical number of them, especially in eco-conscious

professor of materials science and engineering at the University societies like Denmarks, may opt for innovative recycling,
of Florida (Gainesville), is developing a recyclable plastic for cell which could leave individual companies in charge of their
phones with funding from Motorola Inc. (Schaumburg, Ill.). own recycling plans. The EICTAs Feehan says each company
Probably the biggest issue in design is how quickly you can she represents is interested in green marketing. But each
clean base plastics, says Datec Technologies Mackie. The will presumably base technology investment on how popu-
monitor has flame retardants [that] nobody will identify. Also lar they perceive the WEEE to be.
concerned is Ted Smith, executive director of the Silicon Valley Changes in design and physics may also overwhelm todays
Toxics Coalition (San Jose, Calif.), who insists that brominated methods by the time WEEE laws become commonplace.
flame retardants pose a very significant threat to public health. Before too long, says Joe Jaswinski, senior vice president of
With such mysteries lingering, solutions like Biddles look more operations of DMC Recycling Inc. (Newfields, N.H.), shred-
like targeted medicines than silver bullets. ders and chemical mixes will advance to a point where recy-
WEEEs economic upshot is murky. Companion legislation on clers can mine PCs for the sand and oil in them. And Chris T.
removing hazardous substances may spur higher prices, espe- Hendrickson, head of the civil and environmental engineering
cially from U.S. firms whose home governments have laxly reg- department at Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh), notes
ulated hazardous e-waste disposal [see again, Recycling in the that scrap heaps arent necessarily the last stop for minerals.
United States, opposite page]. That may discourage sales, which Its quite conceivable that 100 years from now the landfills are
would reduce R&D budgets. going to be mined, he says.
There is also the question of hidden costs. A spokesperson for The WEEE directive may order manufacturers to break
a large U.S. company, who asked for anonymity, points out that down their machines, but nobody knows how those machines
free take-back will not be free, since manufacturers will pass will come back together.
along their costs in higher prices or taxes. If this pragmatic atti- Tekla S. Perry, Editor

Japan: Serious Business

T
he question of whether
consumers will pay for
recycling isnt abstract in
Japan. Since April 2001, theyve
had to pay a small fee to recycle
TVs, washing machines, refrig-
erators, and air conditioners,
with retailers and manufactur-
ers forced to bear some collec-
tion and recycling costs. The Law
for Recycling of Specific Kinds of
Home Appliances may extend to
home computers in fiscal 2003.
And if Japanese consumers and
companies arent necessarily
thrilled about this regime, nei-
zine, Toshiba (Tokyo) decided in
December 2001 to include the
eventual recycling fee in the price
of a new PC. Matsushita Electric
Industrial Co. (Kadoma City) and
Hitachi Ltd. (Tokyo) formed a
strategic alliance in May 2001
focused explicitly on, among
other things, products that in
terms of recyclability go beyond
any existing today.
But results of this alliance
have not yet come to light. Its
A worker at a Tokyo recycling plant affiliated with NEC Corp. not clear whether consumers
dismantles personal computers and sorts parts. will have to cover recycling
costs of used PCs in the new fis-
IEEE SPECTRUM

ther are they ducking it.
Consumers in Japan are
taking the e-recycling law seri-
ously, says Dylan Tanner, Japan
YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP
2001; and manufacturers must present to cover the actual costs cal year, which began in April, or
recycle up to half of a washing of recycling. at some future point. Since
machine or 55 percent of a TV, Japanese companies com- companies like Sony are prac-
according to Toshiba Corp. But pete on their environmental vir- ticed at investing in environ-

project manager for Environ- even with wide compliance tues. Matsushitas Panasonic mental innovation, Ted Smith of
May 2002

mental Resources Management among consumers and retailers brand and Sharp Corp. (Osaka) the Silicon Valley Toxics Coali-
Japan Ltd., (Yokahama), a glob- (who pay fees to manufacturers), have begun working with lead- tion (San Jose, Calif.) expects
al consulting firm. Retailers says Tanner, makers state that free solders. According to the the law to keep pace with its
started taking back appliances in consumer fees are not enough at Nikkei Weekly, a business maga- European counterpart. A.A. 51