Early this week, the New York City Council overwhelmingly passed a producer responsibility-based e-waste bill.New Yorkers love being first (and best) (and biggest) and we're no different on this front, announcing that we're the first city to pass this sort of legislation.
That said, we followed the lead of the great state of Minnesota (and others) to craft a bill that business, environmental groups, and City Council members could live with. (That's no small accomplishment.)
The bill asks business to take action to keep computers, monitors, cell phones, MP3 players and other electronica out of our waste stream, and to do so by taking back 25% of what they sell to us. Manufacturers have until 2009 to figure out how to implement the take-backs; measurement against performance standards will be effective in 2012.
Mayor Bloomberg has spoken out against the bill; he doesn't support performance standards.
NYC's performance measurement system CompStat has been lauded for reducing crime; the city has extended its application to other arenas. And yesterday Mayor Bloomberg announced City-Wide Performance Reporting (CPR) -- "the mother of all accountability tools" -- designed to increase transparency and accountability in city services. Both CompStat and CPR are, to my understanding, based on the notion of watching trends to identify areas for improvement, rather than setting standard targets.
Maybe the Mayor is looking for similar measurement with respect to e-waste recycling; a veto is not currently certain (despite some strong rhetoric). Reach out to Mayor Bloomberg and let him know what you think.
(The photo of several of the bill's sponsors, and a tower of e-waste, is from the 2/13/08 press conference "preannouncing" the bill's passage.)
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