The Electronic Waste ('e-waste") Code of EthicsTM
We pledge:
1. To educate the public, and especially youth, about the global problem of electronic waste (“e-waste”), and to support efforts to develop solutions;
2. To convince manufacturers to build electronics from materials that do not harm any form of life, and are designed to be easily broken down and completely re-used at the end of their lifecycles;
3. To advocate for practices designed to neutralize the carbon footprint of electronics throughout their lifecycles;
4. To create less electronic waste by limiting our electronics purchases, and by using our electronics until they stop working;
5. To manage our e-waste in a manner that protects and safeguards all forms of life;
6. To transport our e-waste safely, in a carbon-neutral manner, and in compliance with local, state, and federal laws;
7. To re-use, repair, salvage, and recycle our e-waste in accordance with the highest ethical and international standards, even when these standards exceed the requirements of our local, state, and federal laws;
8. To stop our e-waste from being tipped into landfills or incinerated as solid waste;
9. To ensure that our e-waste is not dumped in developing countries;
10. To keep child labor and prison labor from manufacturing our electronics or processing our e-waste;
11. To employ only those electronics recyclers and downstream processors willing to abide by this Code of Ethics;
12. To encourage educational institutions, corporations, and governments to create curricula, programs, and incentives designed to support “Green Chemistry” so as to promote the discovery and use of molecules and materials that do not harm life;
13. To patronize those manufacturers who agree “take back” their electronics at the end of their lifecycles and process them in accordance with the principles in this Code of Ethics;
14. To support the passage of legislation requiring that every manufacturer, handler, transporter, and recycler of used electronics meet the highest ethical and international standards;
15. To employ, when necessary, site visits, independent audits or other mechanisms to verify that our electronics are manufactured, re-used, repaired, recycled, and processed in accordance with the principles herein, and,
16. To share our knowledge about the challenge of e-waste with our families, friends, classmates, colleagues, neighbors, customers, suppliers, employers, and elected representatives.