Update on New York City E-waste Lawsuit
Katie Hershey
TakeBack Coalition:
Dear state and local government colleagues –
I wanted to send along an update to all of you who signed the letter
to CEA/ITIC regarding the New York City e-waste lawsuit.
Press Coverage on the Letter
As you know, we sent the letter in early November. Thanks to everyone
who did presswork in your regions. We were able to generate press
coverage on this in many local media markets – some of it newspapers,
a lot of it on policy or technology blogs, some radio. As we expected
we got some coverage right away, and then more stories are coming out
as outlets have time to cover this. There is a big story coming out in
Recycling Today in January. You can read some of these articles and
find links to more on a summary of coverage here:
http://www.electronicstakeback.com/legislation/lawsuit_vs_nyc/Press%20Coverage%20on%20NY%20Lawsuit%20Activity.pdf
Industry Response
Some people who signed the letter have received letters back from CEA
and ITIC. The response letters claim that the industry is not trying
to challenge producer responsibility. (Hard to believe in light of the
amicus brief they got filed – see below.)
Update on the case
The judge did agree to allow the local governments to file the amicus
brief in support of the City law. But the Industry has also used this
strategy, and now two amicus briefs have been filed in support of the
industry position. One was filed by several industry associations
that are quite familiar to all of you working on product stewardship
on other products like mercury lamps, switches, thermostats, carpet
and paper:
- National Assn of Manufacturers
- National Electrical Manufacturers Assn
- American Lighting Association
- Carpet and Rug Institute
- American Forest and Paper Assn
- Business Council of New York State.
If anyone had any doubt that this lawsuit is really an attack on the
states’ ability to pass producer responsibility legislation, this
amicus brief filing – by those other associations who don’t want
producer responsibility in their industry – should erase those doubts.
The other brief was filed by the Teamsters, claiming that the City’s
regulations will result in taking union work away from their
collectors, and giving it to private collectors.
Both briefs (and all the legal filings) can be found here:
http://www.electronicstakeback.com/legislation/lawsuit_vs_nyc/lawsuit_vs_nyc.htm
Courtroom Schedule
The oral arguments are now scheduled to be heard on JANUARY 19. So we
can expect more press interest in this issue at that time. After the
holidays, we should talk about how we want to make sure our messaging
gets into that press cycle.
Barbara Kyle
National Coordinator
Electronics TakeBack Coalition
60 29th Street #230 San Francisco CA 94110
415-206-9595
bk...@etakeback.org
www.electronicstakeback.com