Ecobreves – ARGENTINA: Another Setback for Law on E-Waste

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BUENOS AIRES, Nov 29 2010 (IPS) - The vote on a legislative bill about electronic-waste management, already with three years in the Senate, faced new objections and may not be passed until 2011. The bill, which promotes the responsibility of manufacturers in managing e-waste, was sponsored by Greenpeace Argentina and has the backing of technicians, businesses and recyclers. However, just as its approval was expected in committee, new objections emerged.

“As in previous years, this year will not see results,” Greenpeace activist María Eugenia Testa told Tierramérica. “What astonished us was that this time there was consensus, and even so, it was blocked,” she said.

An estimated 2.5 kilograms of e-waste are produced per person in Argentina annually. Half of that ends up in warehouses, 40 percent in landfills and just 10 percent is recycled.