A nationwide electronics stewardship group has agreed to make its best effort to only contract with e-Stewards-certified processors. Meanwhile, a global ITAD firm will seek e-Stewards certification for all its facilities.
On Sept. 19, e-Stewards announced that Electronic Manufacturers Recycling Management Company (MRM) has signed on as an e-Stewards Enterprise Partner. Based in Minneapolis, MRM works on behalf of dozens of OEMs to meet their state extended producer responsibility program obligations.
By joining the Enterprise Partner program, MRM agrees to “make best commercially reasonable efforts to use e-Stewards certified recyclers, to place this preference into all their ‘requests for proposals’ (RFPs), and to provide a short annual report (submitted online) on progress made in using e-Stewards recyclers,” according to e-Stewards.
Electronics manufacturers LG, Samsung, Sony and VIZIO are already Enterprise Partners.
Bob Akers, e-Stewards Enterprise director, told E-Scrap News Enterprise Partners must make their “best commercial efforts” to use e-Stewards-certified processors. He acknowledged that it may not be possible in all cases, however, because e-Steward-certified processors may not serve a particular area or the Enterprise Partner may have contractual obligations that prevent it.
MRM recently announced it reached a milestone of facilitating the recycling of 1 billion pounds of e-scrap since its founding in 2007.
ITAD company to expand e-Stewards certification
Ingram Micro has committed to pursuing e-Stewards certification for all of its processing facilities, according to a press release. Headquartered in Irvine, Calif., Ingram Micro committed to having all of its processing facilities achieve e-Stewards certification within three years.
The company is the first to join a new e-Stewards program called “e-Stewards Committed,” which provides a marketing tool for processors.
Companies that sign the e-Steward Committed Marketing and License Agreement are those that already have one or more e-Stewards-certified facilities and are pledging to get one or more overseas facilities certified within two years. They must have a contract with a certification body and be actively pursuing e-Stewards certification. Additionally, they must perform internal audits and disclose to e-Stewards any areas in which they’re not in line with the standard’s requirements. They pay an annual $250 fee for each facility enrolled in the e-Stewards Committed program.
Salomé Stähli, e-Stewards program manager, told E-Scrap News the group will post all the participating facilities on the e-Stewards website.
In Ingram Micro’s case, the company already has processing facilities in Chandler, Ariz.; Indianapolis; and Pine Brook, N.J. certified to e-Stewards. It plans to pursue the certification for its 14 existing processing facilities in Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, France, Germany, India, the Netherlands, Peru, Singapore, Spain and the U.K., as well as three it is planning to open in Australia, Mexico and New Zealand.
