Good Point Recycling has just reviewed the draft standards by the state of Vermont. It makes the film below worth watching. It's about "Planned Obsolescence". Parts are in English. Will post another.
I spent the day making arrangements to move our reuse operations out of state. Vermont will lose about 8 jobs and $330,000 per year. We will keep the transport and demanufacturing, we just lose my favorite part, the reuse.
The timing is good, we have several vacancies and an opportunity to lease space. I've made my case, and obviously it isn't heard, so we will return to being an 8-employee pack and sort operation starting in July, will probably keep some demanufacturing around. I'm meeting with partners in other states where we can move the monitor testing jobs to.
What Vermont ANR draft e-waste regulations have attempted to do is a nice idea - try to merge the E-Stewards reuse testing function onto the R2. The problem with that is that under the existing, retained R2 standard, you can still recycle (properly) the material overseas, something Good Point is at the forefront of. So this means in VT you pay someone to remove the non-working part, and then ship both the working part and the non-working part to the same place overseas. Or, you open a warehouse in another state and do it the way you have documented is good for jobs, good for the environment, and fair trade.
I know nobody meant to do this, they are trying to do the right thing. But I have tried to make my case, cited the Basel Convention chapter and verse, have all the EPA documentation, but Vermont says that reuse must be done by BAN standards, and after that it done, the reuse tonnage cannot be claimed. Dead. Destroyed.
And no one ever stated that our reuse operation overseas, R2 certified, ISO14001, ISO9000, was ever polluting. If we follow the new VT (e-steward) testing standard, we'll be testing R4 tubes and shipping them, and destroying the tubes with no picture function. The factory PO specifically explains how the former is waste to them, and the latter is repairable.
Obi Wan Kenobe time. Better laugh than cry.
I spent the day making arrangements to move our reuse operations out of state. Vermont will lose about 8 jobs and $330,000 per year. We will keep the transport and demanufacturing, we just lose my favorite part, the reuse.
The timing is good, we have several vacancies and an opportunity to lease space. I've made my case, and obviously it isn't heard, so we will return to being an 8-employee pack and sort operation starting in July, will probably keep some demanufacturing around. I'm meeting with partners in other states where we can move the monitor testing jobs to.
What Vermont ANR draft e-waste regulations have attempted to do is a nice idea - try to merge the E-Stewards reuse testing function onto the R2. The problem with that is that under the existing, retained R2 standard, you can still recycle (properly) the material overseas, something Good Point is at the forefront of. So this means in VT you pay someone to remove the non-working part, and then ship both the working part and the non-working part to the same place overseas. Or, you open a warehouse in another state and do it the way you have documented is good for jobs, good for the environment, and fair trade.
I know nobody meant to do this, they are trying to do the right thing. But I have tried to make my case, cited the Basel Convention chapter and verse, have all the EPA documentation, but Vermont says that reuse must be done by BAN standards, and after that it done, the reuse tonnage cannot be claimed. Dead. Destroyed.
And no one ever stated that our reuse operation overseas, R2 certified, ISO14001, ISO9000, was ever polluting. If we follow the new VT (e-steward) testing standard, we'll be testing R4 tubes and shipping them, and destroying the tubes with no picture function. The factory PO specifically explains how the former is waste to them, and the latter is repairable.
Obi Wan Kenobe time. Better laugh than cry.
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