Products

Electronic Equipment and Product Stewardship

NGO Programs

Several non-governmental organizations have organized programs that promote product stewardship of electronic equipment. This site lists some of the organizations that are active in the Northwest.

Electronics TakeBack Coalition The goal of the Computer TakeBack Campaign is to protect the health and well being of electronics users, workers, and the communities where electronics are produced and discarded by requiring consumer electronics manufacturers and brand owners to take full responsibility for the life cycle of their products, through effective public policy requirements or enforceable agreements.

The Computer TakeBack (CTB) Campaign was developed out of the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition's (SVTC) Clean Computer Campaign and the Grass Roots Recycling Network's Electronics Take it Back! Campaign with participation from the Washington Citizens for Resource Conservation. Through their joint efforts, the CTB Campaign, a multi-organizational coalition, was formed.

A recent article in the Washington Post China Serves As Dump Site For Computers explains the harms of exporting electronic waste.

The three principles that guide this campaign are:

• Take it Back
• Make it Clean
• Recycle Responsibly

Clean Computer Campaign SVTC's Clean Computer Campaign targets the escalating electronics waste problems across the U.S. and complements the efforts of the International Campaign for Responsible Technology (I-CRT), which was formed more than 10 years ago as an outgrowth of the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition.

Launched in 1997, the Clean Computer Campaign works to clean-up the life-cycle of computer manufacturing and promote environmentally sustainable development, extended producer responsibility, and corporate and government accountability.

BAN works to ensure that the Basel Convention's ban on exporting hazardous waste is not weakened. The Basel Action Network (BAN) has released an expose titled Exporting Harm: The High Tech Trashing of Asia prepared in cooperation with the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition. Exporting Harm reveals the harmful consequences of exporting electronic scrap to China for "recycling."

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