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News Release
RI Department of Environmental Management
235 Promenade Street, Providence, RI 02908
(401) 222-2771 TDD/(401) 222-4462
For Release: December 4, 2008
Contact: Gail Mastrati 222-4700 ext. 2402

DEM REMINDS MANUFACTURERS THAT NOW IS THE TIME TO REGISTER UNDER THE STATE'S NEW ELECTRONIC WASTE RECYCLING LAW
Law Requires Manufacturers to Register with DEM by January 1st

PROVIDENCE - The Department of Environmental Management is reminding manufacturers that under Rhode Island's new electronic waste law, manufacturers of certain types of electronic products are required to register with DEM by January 1, 2009. Under Rhode Island's comprehensive electronic waste law, certain electronics manufacturers must take back and recycle their products from households and private/public elementary and secondary schools at the end of the product's useful life.

Under the law, each manufacturer of covered electronic products offered for sale or delivery in Rhode Island is required by January 1, 2009 to register with DEM and pay a $5,000 registration fee that will go into the state's Environmental Emergency Response Fund. Electronics retailers are prohibited from offering covered electronics products for sale in the state from manufacturers not registered with DEM and not in compliance with RI's electronic waste law.

As part of the registration process, a manufacturer must inform DEM whether it intends to participate in the state program for collection and recycling of covered electronic products as administered by RIRRC, or administer its own manufacturer collection and recycling program, either alone or in coordination with other manufacturers. DEM has sent letters to approximately 200 manufacturers of electronic products that may be required to register with the Department under the new law. It is the responsibility of manufacturers to determine if they need to register with DEM. The registration form, guidance documents and information on the electronic waste law are available on the DEM website at http://www.dem.ri.gov/ewaste/index.htm. The Department will post a list of each manufacturer's compliance status on the DEM website in early 2009.

Enacted in June 2008, the RI Electronic Waste Prevention, Reuse and Recycling Act bans the disposal of electronic waste at landfills in the state after January 31, 2009 and requires electronics manufacturers to take financial responsibility for administering their own take-back program or participate in a state take-back program run by the RI Resource Recovery Corporation (RIRRC). Covered electronic products include computers, CRT and flat panel computer monitors, combination units, and laptop/notebook computers, televisions, and similar video display devises containing a circuit board and a screen measuring more than nine inches diagonally.

For additional information about manufacturer registration requirements or the electronic waste law or recycling program, contact Elizabeth Stone at elizabeth.stone@dem.ri.gov or 222-4700 ext. 2422.

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