| GRN Recycle Talk FAQ Answer |
Date: Thu, 20 Nov 97 10:08 WET From: FRIEDMAN.FRED@EPAMAIL.EPA.GOV (Fred Friedman) Subject: Re: Return to Manufacturer (Vanessa)
Nov. 20, 1997
Dear Vanessa,
What you are referring to are take-back programs, aka extended producer responsibility programs. These have chiefly been extended to nonhazardous materials, and originated in Europe. However, there are some exceptions.
There is a good article on the variations of this in the proceedings of Making and Un-making , Session 1: The New Rules of The Game from a Conference held in Milan, Italy in October 23-24, 1992. The specific article is called Extended Producer Responsibility by Thomas Lindhqvist, of Lund University which I believe to be in Sweden.
The most widespread scheme of this sort appying to a potentially hazardous waste is for household batteries with the passage in 1996 of the Federal Rechargeable Battery Recycling Act covering NiCads and mercury containing batteries. The RBRC referred to in other posts at this site is the lead organization in devising a take-back system, not by the producers, but by a trade association instead.
Energizer, Panasonic, Sanyo Energy and others were involved in setting up the RBRC in 3/94. It operates like a trade assn. but is formally a firm unto itself.
I believe that there is also a takeback scheme in effect involving the producers of lead-acid batteries in the US ever since they have been banned from being landfilled some years ago.
The most well-known example is of course the German Green Dot system which is not at all about hazardous materials.
Computers which do bear hazardous materials have some take back programs in place, especially by the large manufacturers in the US and in Japan.
Dell and Hewlett Packard are only two of those firms that have been involved at least since 1994.
There are restrictions on their programs.
Check the sub-sub-field of logistics management for other leads. The Council of Logistics Management probably will have some leads as well.They can be reached at 708-574-0985.
Again, overseas, Japan's Mitsubishi and Germany s Volksvagen and Daimler-Benz have some automobile take back programs. The European Union has a project on the takeback of electronic products including Deutsche Telekon, Alcatel, Preussag AG and Siemens AG for such items as telephones, fax machines and answering machines. The Dutech, too were trying to jump on to this bandwagon in late 1996.
The newsletter, Business and the Environment had a chart of European national efforts to takeback trageted prodducts in its 5/97 issue of its sub-title Product Stewardship Adviser and a series of articles interested in the subject in earlier months.
-- Research Library for RCRA