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Matt Doll, Minnesota Environmental Partnership
The computer, tablet, or smartphone you’re using to read this column will, sooner or later, start to decline. It might last for many years, and using it sparingly and getting it repaired if it breaks are great steps for the environment. But, eventually, processing chips start to degrade or become outdated and lithium batteries lose their ability to hold their charge, turning devices into electronic waste.
The good news is that those components can be recycled, allowing the valuable materials within to be recovered and reused. But in practice, that only happens when consumers have easy access to recycling dropoff options. For many Minnesotans, trying to properly dispose of e-waste means a long drive outside their home county.
As a result, only a fraction of Minnesota’s 133 million pounds of e-waste is disposed of properly. The rest of it gathers dust in our basements, ends up dumped across the landscape, or is tossed into garbage cans and dumpsters, where it makes up 2% of the state’s solid waste stream.
That seemingly small 2% has a heavy impact on the environment, on the safety of sanitation workers, and on community budgets. Combining lithium batteries with methane and other flammable substances in landfills and garbage trucks is a recipe for disaster. Cities and counties are increasingly raising the alarm about increased fire due to e-waste. Much of this waste also contains lead and over heavy metals that can seep into groundwater over time.
Minnesota has a 2007 law on the books nominally banning e-waste from landfills and supporting some electronics recycling in the state, but it doesn’t go far enough. Fortunately, a bipartisan group of legislators is working on a much broader solution to make sure all consumer e-waste can be safely and properly disposed of through a concept called “extended producer responsibility.”
Led by chief authors from both parties, SF 1690/HF 1426 would set up what’s known as a “producer responsibility organization” to support e-waste collection efforts. This organization would be run as a nonprofit by electronics manufacturers, who would be required to participate and pay a fee in order to cover the cost for statewide e-waste collection. The organization would be subject to oversight by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) and would be responsible for making sure that Minnesotans in every county can access convenient e-waste dropoff options.
By making sure that recycling is widespread, Minnesota won’t just keep toxins and flammable substances out of our trash, but we’ll also access a massive source of mineral wealth. It’s estimated that Minnesota’s annual e-waste stream contains $2.8 billion worth of valuable critical materials. Recovering these materials at the end of a product’s life cycle is far more sustainable for climate, water, and land than mining for new ones.
SF 1690 was heard in the Senate Environment, Climate, and Legacy Committee last Thursday. A number of MEP members and other organizations testified in favor, as did the MPCA and representatives of counties that have struggled to keep up with the cost of shipping e-waste and putting out increasingly frequent fires.
On the other hand, industry groups expressed opposition to the bill in its current form for various reasons, regarding it as overly broad or onerous in its costs to businesses. They’re entitled to their viewpoint, but proponents of the bill pointed out that the costs of e-waste disposal don’t just disappear – they’re paid by county and municipal governments, and therefore by Minnesota taxpayers. For small rural counties, those costs are adding up to be especially high.
This bill has already undergone amendments and will likely continue to be shaped through the session, though the committee did pass it onward to the State and Local Government Committee. It will likely include changes to the definition of batteries, as groups including lead-acid battery recyclers and e-bike proponents have expressed concerns.
Ultimately, though, we think that SF 1690/HF 1426 has a strong chance of passing the closely-divided legislature this session. Minnesotans and communities of all political stripes recognize that our current e-waste system – or lack thereof – is costing us all in both health and money. We hope to see the Legislature make Minnesota a leader on keeping these materials out of our garbage stream and back into beneficial use.