h/t to CLEB for reminding me I needed to write up a post on the new e-waste announcement that came out of Beijing last week.

Much like banning plastic bags, this is a problem that needed to be addressed years ago, and it is through policies that the foundation to cleaning up this problem will be laid.

According to the Sustainablog writeup:

The new law mandates the establishment of centralized funding for enlargement and improvement of safe electronic recycling facilities in China. It also places responsibility on manufacturers, retailers, repair and customer service providers and recycling companies to collect and responsibly handle electronic waste; though the wording of the scope of their responsibility as well as punitive measures for noncompliance is vague.

Upon a very cursory review of the coverage though, I have a few issues to air:

1) 2011 is still 21 months away – and those piles are still not getting any smaller

2) The products are not only poorly defined, and the stage of waste (raw, semi-process, etc) is also equally lacking

3) Licenses will come from local government bureaus

4) No mention of who will manage the fund, where the money is to be paid in, etc.

While certainly a step in the right direction, it the historically twin issues of vagueness and local enforcement that will continue to plague the progress.  As we saw in the 60 minutes coverage last year, while many of the recyclers are small in nature, they are clearly back by forces larger than themselves , and have become the lifeblood for some local economies.

For me, I would love to see some verbage that was along the lines of X international standard, laid the path for public participation, opened the doors to 3rd parties (i.e. NGOs) , and increased fines to really put a holistic pressure on those who creating/ importing this mess.