Invitation to WR3A "California Compromise" of SB20

Today's Sacramento Bee response editorial from Maziar Movassaghi represents the biggest window of opportunity to reform SB20 to allow reuse.  
 

As many readers know, WR3A, as a "fair trade recycling" business consortium, has asked California to change its interpretation of "cancellation" under SB20.  WR3A achieves reuse in partnership with extremely well-run contract manufacturers which originally manufactured a lot of the computers.   By taking its monitors off the market, CA creates a vacuum which is either met by "sham recyclers", or through "switcheroo" CA SB20 companies which ship good stuff overseas and use the "freed up" California addresses to bring in junk from neighboring states.
 

I want to invite everyone with an interest in environmental stewardship to meet and hash out a compromise which fits either R2 or E-Steward standards.  WR3A.org will be holding its annual meeting at the E-Scrap Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana this September 29.  I would like a crowning achievement to be a letter formally endorsing an SB20-eligible purchase order, allowing either WR3A-method (stripping CRT after assessing for direct reuse) refurbishing in Mexico or BAN-method (stripping first in USA) in Asia.
 

WR3A would like to announce the "California Compromise" at the E-Scrap Conference, which means crafting the compromise ASAP.  This is a call to allow for reuse at manufacturer takeback and SKD factories whose national governments legally accept CRTs and LCDs for refurbishing under Basel Convention Annex IX, B1110 (not all nations share USA EPA's definition of commodity, WR3A trades only with those which do).   In a recent conversation with Jim Puckett of BAN, I offered to set up a system which strips the CRTs and tests them to a degree which BAN considers legal as well.  CA has proximity to ports and savings it can achieve under SB20 which would make it the best candidate to pursue the WR3A-BAN compromise.

California needs to add one sentence to SB20 language, which it could do under Executive Order or even with a letter of definition, e.g.

"For the purpose of manufacturer and assembler takeback programs, cancellation may include CRT tubes whose vacuum is left intact when sold under a certified process which refurbishes the monitors for reuse under factory warranty."

WR3A will sponsor travel for CalRecycle if necessary, but we would like the trial agreement to be negotiated ahead of the E-Scrap Conference and to use the Conference as an official kickoff for recyclers and generators willing to ship under this process.   We will also invite Paul Jhin whose non-profit organization is working to fill the United Nations GAID purchase order for working computers, and WR3A has proposed to donate 20,000 units per year to UNGAID if California implements this change.


California e-recyclers who participate will be offered 100% certified reuse and recycling, and still get credit for "CRT Glass" just as if the CRT had been re-melted before being turned into a new product.  They will be able to meet E-Steward or R2 certification, and will get more prompt reconciliation records.   And the reuse markets they take over will compete with their lowball competitors.  It's a win-win-win.