ANAB Offers Responsible Recycling (R2) Certification Program

(ANSI: New York) -- The American National Standards Institute (ANSI), American Society for Quality (ASQ) National Accreditation Board (ANAB) is now offering accreditation for companies certifying recyclers of electronic equipment under the Responsible Recycling (R2) Practices for Use in Accredited Certification Programs for Electronics Recyclers.

R2 is a set of guidelines for use by electronics recyclers to promote better environmental, health and safety, and security practices when recycling end-of-life electronics. The guidelines cover computers, peripherals, cell phones, and televisions sent to recyclers for proper refurbishment and recycling. Once they are certified to R2 by accredited certifying bodies, electronics recyclers will have a way to highlight their environmentally sound operations and provide customers the means to find recyclers using sound practices.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) facilitated development of R2 in an open process. Stakeholders supporting the R2 practices include representatives from federal and state governments, electronics manufacturers, electronics refurbishing and recycling professionals, and trade associations.

“The R2 standards are an important step in the right direction. Now consumers will know that their products are going to safe recyclers,” says Matt Hale, director of EPA’s Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery.

ANAB, the U.S. accreditation body for management systems, provides oversight of third-party certification bodies that become accredited to conduct audits and issue certificates of conformance to electronic recycling organizations that successfully demonstrate they meet R2 requirements.

“ANAB’s oversight of R2 certification is intended to build confidence and value for consumers,” says Randy Dougherty, ANAB vice president.

R2 calls for recyclers to establish a management system for environmental and worker safety; develop a policy that promotes reuse and material recovery over landfill or incineration; and use practices that reduce exposures or emissions during recycling operations. The guidelines also call for recyclers to exercise due diligence to assure appropriate management of materials throughout the recycling chain, including materials exported to foreign countries.

The Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), a trade association representing the nation’s leading high-tech companies, participated in development of R2 and is among the stakeholders that have endorsed the standard.

“Our industry fully embraces efforts to ensure that used electronics are properly handled and responsibly processed and recycled,” says Rick Goss, ITI vice president of environment and sustainability. “ITI believes ANAB accreditation for R2 is a significant step forward in the process of recycling electronics, and looks to participating in efforts started by the R2 group to continuously review and evolve the standard.”

A committee of experts that includes representatives of the EPA, states, electronics manufacturers, electronics refurbishers and recyclers, and certification bodies developed ANAB’s R2 accreditation requirements.

“The R2 standard represents great progress in the industry, raising the bar on electronics recycling,” says Mike Watson, senior compliance manager with Dell. “We look forward to keeping the momentum going and will continue to work with NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] and industry partners to raise the bar even higher.” Watson is a member of the ANAB Committee of Experts for R2.

Access to R2 and related information

The R2 documents and a checklist to be used by certifying bodies to train their auditors can be downloaded from www.decideagree.com/TheR2Practices.html.

Certification bodies seeking ANAB accreditation to issue R2 certificates must be accredited to provide certification to ISO 14001 for a period of at least a year by ANAB or another national accreditation body recognized by the International Accreditation Forum to provide certification to ISO 14001, the international standard for environmental management systems.

Recyclers who wish to be certified to the R2 standards should contact accredited certification bodies that audit and issue certificates to ISO 14001. Contact information for ANAB-accredited ISO 14001 certification bodies can be found at www.anab.org/Directory/Directory_Search.asp.

About The Author