Electronic Device Recycling Research and Development Act

Floor Speech

ELECTRONIC DEVICE RECYCLING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ACT -- (House of Representatives - April 22, 2009)

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Mr. THOMPSON of California. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for your kind words and for recognizing me on this bill.

Mr. Speaker and Members, I'm here today to speak in strong support of this measure, H.R. 1580. As the chairman noted, I've been involved in this subject of electronic waste or e-waste since I first came to Congress. And I want to applaud the chairman and the Science Committee's work and their interest on this very, very important issue. Chairman Gordon has been a strong leader on e-waste issues and has helped to move this issue forward.

Electronic product technology is moving at a very, very fast pace, but at the same time, it's creating an ever-growing environmental and waste disposal problem. That's because it's often cheaper or sometimes cooler to buy a new PC or a new cell phone than to upgrade an old one. Today, the average life span of a computer is only 2 years, and Americans are disposing of 3,000 tons of computers every day. These discarded items, more often than not, wind up in landfills in developing countries where the waste is a terrible environmental problem.

A recent GAO study found that most e-waste exported from the U.S. is dismantled under unsafe conditions, often by children, using methods like open-air incineration and acid baths to extract component metals. This puts people at risk and makes e-waste a moral issue, a moral hazard as well.

The bill we are considering today will achieve two important and necessary goals. First, it will establish grant programs to fund studies to evaluate how to make electronic equipment easier to recycle on the front end. Second, it will train our Nation's engineering students in ``green design.'' This important legislation will lay an important piece of the foundation for comprehensive e-waste legislation in the future. Truly, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. If obsolete computers and other such items can be diverted from the waste stream at the outset, half of our battle will already have been won.

Again, I thank the chairman and the committee for their good work. I urge swift passage of this measure.

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