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. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1580. I am pleased that this bill has been introduced and happy that our country will continue to be on the forefront of technology policy. The goals, frankly, of this bill are commendable as we struggle to limit the pollution and amount of waste that is being sent to our landfills.

Obviously, there are a lot of issues to consider when we address disposal, recycling and the reuse of electronic equipment. First, we must consider what technologies are appropriate for reuse and recycling. Obviously, another consideration is the proper disposal of hazardous waste that accompanies electronics. And, finally, we must balance the costs and the benefits of the regulatory issues when you're dealing with export economies.

Now, with each technological advance and each model replacement, we face the question of disposal of those older products. This is a very complex situation which creates a vast array of opinions on possible solutions to the problems.

Now, dealing with this problem is not insurmountable. With the right type of research and development, we can institute new ways of tracking, of sorting, recycling and reusing electronics, and by making them less hazardous from the design stage, from the beginning, before they're even being built, allow them to do less harm when we dispose of them later on in life. So I think this legislation is a move in the right direction to address these concerns.

Through the committee process, Mr. Speaker, we've learned that there are a number of companies, many of them actually, that seek new uses for these products which obviously then reduces the number of them that end up in landfills. And I'm grateful to the chairman for introducing this legislation and also for holding hearings on this subject matter.

So, again, lots of times we hear that legislation gets to the floor without going through the normal order, regular order. In this case, not only has that taken place, but the chairman has had hearings on it, and I think it's important.

Now, again, I endorse the concept behind this bill, and I believe Congress should be encouraging better designs for electronic devices, to increase their life span and, obviously, to make them easier to recycle.

But there are a few aspects of this bill that still I have some concerns with. One such concern comes from an amendment offered in committee requiring that the EPA publish the results of research and development projects authorized by this bill on its Web site. And of course that sounds like something we should all support, and we should.

But here's the concern, that the copyright protections of the research published on the Web site may not be preserved. We should ensure that this is addressed prior to the bill finally being enacted into law. And I look forward to continuing to work with the chairman.

Additionally, it was unclear from the bill's language whether, if there's more than one for-profit entity included in a consortium whether the total contribution from all for-profit entities is to be at least 10 percent, or if each for-profit member is to contribute at least 10 percent. It's not clear. So I appreciate the efforts of the chairman to clarify this in report language, and I hope that he would be willing to modify the legislative language itself, if necessary, to ensure that these issues are addressed. And, again, the chairman, I know, also has the same concerns because he's addressed it. But I think we need to address it a little bit further.

I believe this bill takes steps towards addressing a very important issue. And I hope that this bill, as it moves forward, will continue to be tweaked a little bit to make sure that it's even better.

So, again, I hope that we can get the best possible bill, the best possible legislation out of this. I commend the chairman.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the remaining part of my time.

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