Solid Waste > Washington Recycles: Electronics Home > 2009 Return share list

Establishing a Return Share List

What Is Return Share?

The law defines return share as a manufacturer’s percentage, by weight, of identified brands of covered electronic products returned for recycling.

The law directs Ecology to determine the return share for each manufacturer participating in either the Standard Plan or an Independent Plan. Ecology will determine return share by dividing the reported weight of each manufacturer’s recycled products by the total weight of recycled products from all manufacturers in all recycling plans. The result is multiplied by 100 to express the return share as a percentage.

For example, suppose that 179,026 pounds of covered electronic products from Company X were returned for recycling. If the total weight of covered electronic products returned was 2, 295,178 pounds, Company X’s return share would be 179,026 divided by 2,295,178; the result of 0.078 multiplied by 100 equals 7.8 percent.

Return Share Determination

For 2009, the first year of the recycling program, Ecology will use an estimated return share for each manufacturer to calculate each manufacturer’s equivalent share. A manufacturer’s equivalent share is a target (in pounds of covered electronic products) that the manufacturer should collect for recycling in a given year.

The law directed Ecology to determine the first-year return share for manufacturers using all reasonable means and the best available information with regard to return-share data from other states.

Ecology obtained the most comprehensive return share data available from the Brand Data Management System developed by the National Center for Electronics Recycling (NCER).

The NCER report included only studies that recorded brands for all four product categories covered by Washington’s law (televisions, monitors, desktop and portable computers).

Below are a few notes about each of the return-share studies included:

• Hennepin County, Minnesota (2004): This study used the largest sample size of any of the studies. It comes from one of the longest-running and most successful electronics recycling programs in the country. The Hennepin County program recorded the brands of 12,800 monitors, 6,500 TVs, 7,800 desktops, and 500 laptops.
• The State of Florida: This is the only ongoing return-share study not associated with a mandated state program. Although its sample size is smaller than Hennepin County, it has a sophisticated data-tracking program that allows users to track changes over time.
• Kane County, Illinois (December 9, 2006): The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 5 tasked Booz Allen Hamilton to perform a brand sort for returned electronic products at a collection event in December 2006. The brand sort provided data on the brands and corresponding weights of products returned during a typical collection event in that region. (Region 5 includes Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio.) EPA and its partners have used the data to provide baseline information about the specific types of products currently being returned at events in those states. This project recorded brands from a total of 943 units (TVs, desktops, laptops, and monitors).
• NCER West Virginia Collection Event Program (West Virginia, 2006): The NCER managed a series of collection events from February to September 2006 at eight locations throughout West Virginia. At these events, NCER staff performed a brand count of all returned TVs, monitors, and desktop and laptop computers. The collection event program targeted West Virginia residents and small business and included a limit of 5-10 units per vehicle. This program recorded the brands of 1,325 monitors, 500 TVs, 1,200 desktops, and 52 laptops.

The NCER report listed a total of 1,370 brands and 2.49 million pounds collected from the four studies noted above.

Starting in 2010, Ecology will determine return share by applying the sampling methodology found in WAC 173-900. Each plan is responsible for conducting sampling of electronic products returned for recycling and reporting the results to Ecology. Ecology will then combine the sampling information and determine an annual return share for each manufacturer.

The link below will take you directly to the NCER Web site and database: http://www.electronicsrecycling.org/BDMS/index.aspx.

2009 Return Share List

Ecology used the NCER report as the basis for developing Washington’s 2009 Return Share list. Some important factors that went into the development of the Return Share list are:

• For some brands on the NCER report, Ecology could not identify a manufacturer. Ecology determined these brands to be “orphans” and excluded them from the Return Share list.
• Other brands on the NCER report came from manufacturers that have gone out of business and for which there are no successors in interest. Ecology also determined these brands to be “orphans” and excluded them from the Return Share list.
• Because of the small volumes collected for many brands, nearly 1,000 of the 1,370 brands in the NCER report had a brand share of 0.00%.

Orphan brands recycled under Washington’s program will be divided among all manufacturers according to their return share percentages.

To see Washington’s 2009 Return Share list (a list of manufacturers with estimated return share and total weight assigned to each manufacturer), please click here

To see a list of brands (and their respective weights) that have been attributed to each manufacturer, please click here

To see a list of “orphan” brands not included in the 2009 Return Share list, please click here

Manufacturer Challenge of Preliminary Return Share Process

The Preliminary Return Share list for program year 2009 was published on June 1, 2007, and manufacturers were notified of their return share by certified mail. The law provided a process for manufacturers to challenge their preliminary return share by written petition to Ecology. The petition had to have been received by July 2, 2007. Petitions were required to include:

1. A detailed explanation of the grounds for the challenge.
2. An alternative calculation.
3. The basis for the alternative calculation.
4. Documentary evidence supporting the challenge.
5. Complete contact information for requests for additional information and clarification.

On August 1, 2007, Ecology published the Final Return Share list for program year 2009. Ecology took into consideration all challenges to its preliminary calculations. A written record of all the challenges received and a summary of the bases for the challenges, as well as Ecology’s response, was published at the same time as the Final Return Share list.

If you have any questions or comments about this process, please contact:
Miles Kuntz
Washington Recycles: Electronics Project Manager
(360) 407-7157
miku461@ecy.wa.gov