Multinational electronic components supplier Arrow Electronics has reached a three-year agreement with the Basel Action Network to certify all of Arrow's electronics recycling and IT asset recovery operations worldwide to the e-Stewards standard. The pilot program makes Arrow the first company with locations on multiple continents to bring the certification to all its operations.

Ontario’s Environment Minister Jim Bradley last week introduced a new Waste Reduction Act and Strategy, which would make numerous changes to the province’s solid waste and recycling management, including doing away with controversial eco fees on electronics purchases.

The long-awaited Waste Reduction Act would replace the 2002 Waste Diversion Act and make some significant changes to how Ontario’s solid waste and recycling program

Nearly 959 million smartphones will be shipped in 2013, according to the latest estimates from International Data Corp. The 33 percent year-over-year increase in global shipments also represents the first time that smartphone shipments will eclipse conventional cell phones, according to IDC.

A U.S. ban on the export of some types of e-scrap to developing countries could create as many as 42,000 new jobs — at least according to a new study commissioned by the Coalition for American Electronics Recycling.

The study, which was conducted by DSM Environmental Services, Inc., surveyed current CAER member companies and estimated employment at 6,850, with a payroll of approximately $250 million.

Microsoft alleges a recycling company willfully advertised and sold refurbished computers with unlicensed copies of its software. In the suit filed Jan. 25 against Phoenix-based E-Waste Harvesters, Inc., Microsoft says it repeatedly warned the company against using its products or trademarks that it has not authorized.

The Librarian of Congress has determined it is now illegal to unlock mobile phones, leaving many in the burgeoning mobile device refurbishment business scrambling to determine how the law will affect their business. The Library of Congress oversees U.S. copyright law, and as of Jan. 26 it now interprets unlocking any carrier-subsidized wireless devices as a violation of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which bans technologies that violate copyright protections.

Penalties have been handed down in the case involving the largest criminal network ever uncovered by the U.K. Environment Agency.

A total of 220,000 GBP ($354,266) in fines have been levied on eight individuals and three companies in connection with an electronic waste trafficking scam. The individuals and companies in question illegally exported 496 tons of scrap televisions, refrigerators, computers and other electronics, to Ghana, Nigeria and Pakistan, all while telling customers the items were being refurbished or recycled responsibly.

SWEEEP Kuusakoski and Nulife Glass have teamed up on a new processing system to recover lead from CRT glass.

The new glass furnace is the product of over a decade of technological innovation and design by Nulife founder Simon Greer, which included a pilot prototype version installed at the company's Manchester, England facility. The latest version of the system was installed at SWEEEP Kuusakoski's Sittingbourne, England recycling facility last July at a cost of approximately $3.2 million.

All 10 citations levied against COM2 Computers and Technologies LLC by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration will be cleared by the end of the month, following a settlement agreement made between the agency and the company Oct. 16.

OSHA had alleged that the Carol Stream, Illinois processor had violated air quality and worker safety practices relating to lead exposure at one of its facilities.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued 11 citations against dual-certified e-scrap processor COM2 Computers and Technologies LLC, but the company says it is meeting with the agency next week to contest the allegations.

COM2 was certified to both e-Stewards and R2 at its Carol Stream, Illinois facility in the Fall of 2011, using AQA International, approximately seven months before the alleged violations were observed by OSHA.