Maximizing Reuse and Recycling

The National Electronics Product Stewardship Initiative (NEPSI) is moving into its second year of trying to work out a national financing system to help maximize the reuse and recycling of used TVs and personal computers. Currently, a small subset of the 45-plus NEPSI stakeholders is making good progress toward developing one or two focused recommendations for the larger group to consider at the next full NEPSI meeting, which is anticipated to be held in early 2003.

NEPSI was launched in San Francisco in June 2001, with representatives from electronics manufacturers, government agencies, environmental groups and others. This product stewardship initiative involves a sharing of responsibility for the reuse and recycling of electronics by those who produce, sell and use these products.

Initial meetings of the NEPSI stakeholder group laid the groundwork for a national system that works toward: “the development of a system, which includes a viable financing mechanism, to maximize the collection, reuse and recycling of used electronics, while considering appropriate incentives to design products that facilitate source reduction, reuse and recycling; reduce toxicity; and increase recycled content.”

Source: EPA Web Site: www.epa.gov