Assembly Planbook - April 2008 - (Page 6) Editorial ASSEMBLY 1050 IL Route 83, Suite 200 Bensenville, IL 60106-1096 Phone 248-362-3700 Fax 630-227-0204 ® The Challenge of E-Waste egend has it that as elephants age, they sense when they are soon to die and instinctively go to the mythical elephant’s graveyard to die alone. Would that something similar could be programmed into the myriad electronic and electrical widgets that permeate our lives, so they would—at the end of their useful life—disappear into a recycling and reuse facility. Alas, such is not the case. Discarded computers, monitors, TV sets and other electronic products are the fastest growing portion of our waste stream—increasing by almost 8 percent from 2004 to 2005—according to the Electronics TakeBack Coalition (San Jose, CA). Even though the EPA says the volume of our overall municipal waste stream is declining, we scrap about 400 million such devices every year in the United States alone. An enormous amount of e-waste is being shipped overseas—mainly to China and India—to have valuable metals reclaimed for reuse. Some of this work is even being done in U.S. prisons. You can learn more at www.computertakeback.com. A number of manufacturers have voluntarily established programs for taking back their products for recycling. Some will even take back other firm’s products, usually for a fee. Government at all levels has either passed legislation mandating recycling or is considering it. Perhaps predictably, California was first—in 2003—to enact such legislation, and it is so far the only state that levies recycling fees on the consumer at time of purchase. Nine other nine states—Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas and Washington—all have producer responsibility laws that require the producers to pay all or part of the cost for collection and recycling. In January, New Jersey became the first state to pass e-waste legislation in 2008, and similar legislation is currently under consideration in 13 more states. In February, New York City became the first city in the nation to take legislative action to deal with the growing amount of electrical and electronic waste. The New York City Council passed groundbreaking legislation instituting a city-wide electronics recycling program for the 25,000 tons of discarded electronic products the city collects annually. Take-back programs notwithstanding, the best way to reduce the volume of e-waste is before the fact, not after, and this is where manufacturing and design engineers play a significant role. For example, design for disassembly, reuse and recycling at the product design stage is well established. However, the principles are equally applicable to manufacturing equipment and processes, albeit considerably more difficult to execute. Continuous improvement is the cornerstone of lean manufacturing, and continuously improving the performance of equipment and processes is a fundamental approach to eliminating all kinds of waste, e-waste included. Adopting continuous improvement as a core principle in manufacturing sets the stage for reducing waste throughout the lifecycle of any product. This is the real solution to the e-waste challenge. L TOM ESPOSITO Publisher espositot@bnpmedia.com BILL DEYOE Associate Publisher deyoew@bnpmedia.com DONALD E. HEGLAND Editorial Director heglandd@bnpmedia.com JOHN SPROVIERI Editor sprovierij@bnpmedia.com AUSTIN WEBER Senior Editor webera@bnpmedia.com ADAM CORT Senior Editor corta@bnpmedia.com MIKE ROBINSON Art Director robinsonm@bnpmedia.com AMANDA PODINA Marketing Coordinator podinaa@bnpmedia.com LISA WEBB Production Manager webbl@bnpmedia.com CAROLYN PERUCCA Buyers Guide Project Leader peruccac@bnpmedia.com SUNNY COVERLY Corporate Reprint & Trade Show Coordinator coverlys@bnpmedia.com CORPORATE DIRECTORS Publishing Timothy A. Fausch Publishing David M. Lurie Publishing John R. Schrei Audience Development Christine A. Baloga Information Technology David P. Brown Finance Lisa L. Paulus Human Resources Rita M. Foumia Conferences & Events Scott Wolters Production Vincent M. Miconi Directories Nikki Smith Creative Michael T. Powell Marketing Douglas Siwek Clear Seas Research John Thomas BNP Media Helps People Succeed in Business with Superior Information 6 ASSEMBLY / April 2008 www.assemblymag.com http://www.computertakeback.com http://www.assemblymag.com
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