The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has flagged up a tougher approach to e-waste following a critical report by government audit body GAO.

 

EPA administrator Lisa Jackson described it as an “urgent concern” and promised to work closely with foreign governments on curbing the mountains of discarded devices containing toxic materials.

 

Jackson said on her blog it was one of the EPA’s top five priorities.  “The electronics that provide us with convenience often end up discarded in developing countries where improper disposal can threaten local people and the environment,” she said.

 

In the near-term, the agency would focus on ways of improve the design and production and recycling of electronic appliances, Jackson added.

 

Last month the US Government Accountability Accounting Office (GAO) said the EPA’s management of e-waste in partnership with other agencies had achieved “positive but limited” results. 

 

It called for the agency to work with other federal bodies to finalize legislation to ratify the Basel Convention on e-waste, which came into force 18 years ago. 

 

The GAO said “tens of millions of used electronics were thrown away” in the US each year.

 

Because these products often contained toxic substances such as lead and mercury “their end-of-life management raises concerns about the potential adverse impacts on human health and the environment, particularly when used electronics are exported to countries that lack a safe recycling and disposal capacity.”