According to Technavio, the Americas are leading the pack in terms of mobile phone recycling. In 2014, the area held the largest market share in the global green and recycled mobile phone market, accounting for a 52.8% of the overall market.
The number of units in the green and recycled mobile phone market in the Americas was 64.6 million in 2014. This number is expected to jump to 135.5 million units in 2019, growing at a CAGR of 16%.
Early awareness of the need to cut down on e-waste, especially among stakeholders in North America, will continue to drive the market through the forecast period. Additionally, a number of e-waste certification standards and recycling initiatives have started popping up in the US, as both governments and private companies attempt to curtail the growing pile of electronic waste.
Active e-waste certification standards and e-waste recycling initiatives in US
E-stewards
The e-stewards pledge was launched in 2003 by the Basel Action Network. The program brings together more than 40 electronics recyclers from Canada and the US in a pledge to prevent the export of hazardous e-waste to developing countries.
According to the organization’s website, “BAN’s e-Stewards Pledge was the only program in North America to make real progress in establishing and ensuring e-waste recycling best practices for toxic materials”.
These best practices include stipulations that e-wate materials not be disposed in landfills, that prison labor not be used to process material and that toxic materials not be exported to poor communities.
R2 standard
R2 is a standard administered by Sustainable Electronics Recycling International. It is a voluntary certification standard, which aims to create solutions for electronics recycling. It provides a set of processes, safety measures and documentation for businesses that repair and recycle used electronics, to help keep e-waste out of landfills and oversee the health and safety of those processing e-waste. According to the organization’s website, there are over 530 R2 certified facilities in 21 countries worldwide.
“The R2 Standard creates market incentives for recycling facilities to implement environmental, health, and safety procedures that directly benefit their workers, the communities in which they operate, and the environment. The R2 Standard helps facilities avoid “reinventing the wheel” by providing consistent knowledge and guidance for electronics repair and recycling that can be applied to any facility, anywhere,” states a write-up on the standard’s website.
STEP Initiative
The STEP (which stands for solving the e-waste problem) initiative is a program run by the United Nations University that provides a forum for manufacturers, recyclers, academics, governments and other organizations to discuss ways to tackle e-waste.
According to the organization’s website, Step’s membership focuses five key areas:
- Reducing the materials used in manufacturing
- Reusing equipment or components where practical
- Refurbishing where possible
- Recovering materials from obsolete equipment
- Recycling the highest possible level of materials
Consumer Electronic Association’s eCycling leadership initiative
The eCycling leadership initiative, run by the Consumer Electronic Association aims to improve consumer awareness of e-waste recycling worldwide, in a bid to recycle one billion pounds of electronics annually by 2016. The organization’s goal is to up the number of electronics recycled responsible and increase collection opportunities available worldwide.
According to the program’s website, “eCycling Leadership Initiative programs are committed to promoting responsible recycling of consumer electronics and we have established a set of principles to guide our efforts nationwide.”
