The goal of the Computer TakeBack Campaign is to protect the health and well being of electronics users, workers, and the communities where electronics are produced and discarded by requiring consumer electronics manufacturers and brand owners to take full responsibility for the life cycle of their products, through effective public policy requirements or enforceable agreements.

We will accomplish this goal by establishing extended producer responsibility (EPR) as the policy tool to promote sustainable production and consumption of consumer electronics (all products with a circuit board).  The Campaign will focus first on establishing EPR for personal computers.  EPR will improve the next generation of solid waste and toxic materials policy, promote the manufacture of cleaner computers and curb the flow of toxic electronic waste by pushing manufacturers to take responsibility for their waste, internalizing its cost in corporate bottom lines, and phasing out the use of hazardous substances.

Three principles are essential to the Campaign’s goal:

Take it Back

• Producer Responsibility: Hold manufacturers/brand owners responsible for meeting specific goals for electronics recovery, reuse, and recycled content that are at least as stringent as goals adopted by the European Union, providing manufacturers with an incentive to finance the development of a convenient and effective collection, disassembly, reuse and recycling infrastructure
• Taxpayer Relief: Shift financial responsibility and potential liability off of taxpayer-funded collection, management and disposal programs that are already overburdened and under-funded; in the short-term - in areas where no other collection opportunity exists - local programs should be authorized to charge-back manufacturers for the costs of managing their electronic devices

Make it Clean

• Toxics Use Reduction: Require manufacturers of consumer electronic devices to meet specific reduction goals and implement programs at least as stringent as those adopted by the European Union to phase down - and where feasible, phase out - the use of hazardous materials in their products

Recycle Responsibly

• Market Based Incentives: Require manufacturers to pay the net cost of collecting and recycling electronic devices (or the cost of proper management and disposal for devices that are not recyclable), providing manufacturers with an incentive to design products for recyclability, to develop markets for recycling, and to support public education about how consumers can manage electronics at the end of their useful lives.
• Right to Know: Require manufacturers to disclose publicly all hazardous substances, and proper techniques for managing them by consumers and recyclers, through clear labels on devices and all their hazardous components.
• Performance Standards: Establish meaningful and verifiable performance standards for electronics recycling companies, specifying responsible management practices, including bans on landfilling, incinerating or exporting electronic waste
• Community Economic Development: Ensure that the recycling infrastructure promotes community economic development, including safe jobs at living wages

>> Computer TakeBack Campaign PowerPoint presentation (7.6MB)

>> Computer TakeBack Campaign PowerPoint presentation with narration (80 MB)