World is Green

Jennifer Kho writes about the growing regulation in electronic waste and the opportunities present for companies all over the world in the supply chain.

Imagine a mountain of trash weighing as much an oil tanker. That’s how much electronic waste the world discards every hour, according to Greenpeace.

New environmental regulations that go into effect in China on March 1 aim to shrink that mountain of waste into a molehill. The Chinese effort is the latest attempt by governments aroudn the world to tackle the problem of growing electronic waste. But while makers of computers, cell phones, and other electronic gadgets might applaud that aim, many worry that they won’t be able to comply with the new laws in time.

The new laws are hitting the electronics industry hard. Companies like Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and NEC have all redesigned their products to comply with E.U. regulations, basically making Brussels the de facto arbiter on world standards.

But whatever their source, the new rules have forced changes in materials, designs, and processes, opening a mountain-sized opportunity for new players throughout their supply chains.

But no matter how much it costs companies to comply with the new regulations, it almost certainly will cost them more in fines, or worse outcomes, for ignoring them. Apple last year pulled its iSight web camera from Europe after it decided that it would be too expensive to meet RoHS specs; by December, Apple stopped selling the product in the U.S.

To be fair, the electronics industry is being asked to implement extremely complex changes in a short amount of time, says Elizabeth Grossman, author of the book High-Tech Trash. “I couldn’t think of another industry that operates on such a large scale internationally that is being asked to make these kinds of changes,” she says.