Technology Recycling: Achieving Consensus for Stakeholders. Roundtable Electronics Recycling. Held in Washington, DC. on September 21, 2004

摘要

Phil Bond is privileged to serve as the Under Secretary here for Technology, and he is happy to welcome you here to the building for an important discussion, and one of the great, great stories of the United States in the last 20 years has been the growth of the high tech sector, especially Information Technology (IT). In particular, its contribution to economic growth, standard of living, giving rise to the ubiquitous consumer electronics products that we see, improving the quality of life, and contributing much. At the same time, we now are faced with more and more of these products reaching the end of their life cycles, and that is requiring political institutions everywhere to begin to discuss and deal with a looming issue, an issue that could really affect the very competitiveness in this increasingly competitive world of the same technology companies that have helped to drive our economy. Here is the state of play. By some estimates, about two million tons per year of scrap, 20 to 50 million PCs per year, requiring management of electronic waste. And, of course, this is, as he mentioned receiving greater focus from political institutions. State and local governments in this country are considering a number of actions, searching for ways as responsibly manage the waste and protect our environment.