industry groups

R2 and e-Stewards representatives are challenging the legality of a bill in Illinois that prohibits accrediting organizations from penalizing e-scrap companies if they send CRT glass to storage cells at a landfill.

One of the country's largest outlets for CRT glass, Closed Loop Refining and Recovery, is no longer certified to the R2 standard in Arizona and has seen its certification in Ohio suspended.

A representative from Closed Loop told E-Scrap News the business simply no longer sees value in the environmental standard and decided to not pay its fees.

Last year, in the pages of E-Scrap News, the Basel Action Network (BAN) called out a growing trend of waste trade denial.

Bloomberg takes readers on a tour of the Chinese town of Guiyu as it looks to formalize electronics recycling, and flooding in parts of India has complicated e-scrap efforts. Amazon is urging its customers in the U.K. to immediately recycle any "hoverboards" they purchased from the site, saying they will be refunded within days.

In a resounding victory for electronics reuse advocates in the U.S., the Librarian of Congress has granted individuals and companies alike the right to unlock used phones and tablets for the next three years.

The ruling eliminates a key obstacle for companies attempting to re-market used devices and concludes more than a year of uncertainty surrounding the future legality of unlocking in the U.S.

SERI has begun conducting surprise audits of R2-certified facilities, with auditors concentrating on downstream due diligence and other topics of concern.

Sustainable Electronics Recycling International (SERI), the Boulder, Colo.-based nonprofit organization managing the R2 e-scrap environmental standard, began conducting spot – or unannounced – audits of facilities in mid-August. So far, it has conducted about a dozen.

New estimates on the time it takes for a flat-panel display TV to enter the U.K. waste stream have been released.

The findings, determined by WRAP, an influential waste reduction and recycling nonprofit group based in the U.K., suggest the average life span of flat-panel display televisions is about 10 years. Life-span estimates are critical in estimating when devices will begin appearing in the recycling stream.

The leader of California e-scrap recycling company E-World Recyclers has been indicted in a federal court on charges of trafficking government-seized counterfeit material and altering contract documents. The case, first publicized by watchdog group Basel Action Network, has a number of industry touchpoints and is loaded with complications, including the very plea the executive gave before the court when he was charged last winter.

E-World CEO Robert Erie, 51, was indicted in San Diego on Dec. 18, 2014 in the U.S.

Illinois legislators have unanimously passed a bill that, if signed into law, would count leaded CRT glass stored at a designated landfill cell toward manufacturer recycling goals.

After passing the House in April by a vote of 114-0, the Illinois Senate on Tuesday passed the measure 53-0. The bill now needs Gov. Bruce Rauner's signature to become law.

A group of socially minded e-scrap firms have joined together to help open job opportunities for people with disabilities or previous incarcerations.

The Los Angeles-based Impact Recyclers is a network of certified social enterprise e-scrap recycling companies. The network currently includes seven recycling entities – some for-profit and some nonprofit groups – with locations in California, Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Minnesota and New York.