American Recycler, December 2010
Thanks to a United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Grant, the State Electronics Challenge is now available to public entities in 22 states.
The Challenge has been active in 16 other states for as long as three years. Currently, there are 46 public sector entities – including two entire states – participating as Partners, representing 55,000 employees.
State Electronics Challenge (SEC) Partners commit to take action to reduce the environmental footprint of their computer assets. In return partners receive free one-on-one technical assistance, web-based resources, webinar opportunities, and reporting and measurement tools to spur innovative pollution prevention approaches to managing their computer assets.
Specifically, the SEC promotes environmentally preferable purchasing of computers using the EPEAT® environmental performance standard, energy conservation through power management, paper use reduction, reuse and environmentally responsible recycling of computers at the end-of-life. The scope of the Challenge is expected to expand to include imaging equipment and televisions in the upcoming year.
In addition to support from the Great Lakes initiative, the challenge is supported by a grant from EPA Region 8, and sponsorship from ISRI R2/RIOS, Panasonic and Sims Recycling Solutions. The SEC is administered by the Northeast Recycling Council, Inc.
Participating states include: