E-Waste a Big Problem that May be Getting Bigger
John S. Shegerian, chairman and chief executive officer of Electronic Recyclers International stressed the importance of addressing the "Hazardous Afterlife" of electronic waste at the Chartwell Waste Industry Summit recently in Tampa Bay, Fla.
He argued that it is now "far too late to sweep this problem under the rug" and urged fellow industry leaders to work with regional legislators to establish effective systems to correctly dispose of the massive amounts of unwanted electronics flooding the waste stream.
He also explained the mounting environmental problems caused by the glut of our nation's e-waste as well as the forthcoming "tsunami-like" increase of e-waste with the impending national television switchover to digital.
The Chartwell Waste Industry Summit is an annual meeting for waste industry executives to discuss the challenges, opportunities, outlooks and trends in the management of waste. The event sponsored by the Chartwell Solid Waste Digest, is designed to help waste management executives develop strategic outlooks for their current special services, as well as the additional services that will likely be needed by their customers in the future.
"Properly disposing of electronic waste has become a problem that demands more than a quick fix. The state of California developed a legislation model, creating a regional infrastructure to manage this problem – but they did it four years ago -- and it is now well past the eleventh hour for those states who have not implemented similar legislation to do something about it," Shegerian said.