E*Scrap 2004, hosted last Oct. 19-20 by publisher, pundit and master of
ceremonies Jerry Powell in Minneapolis, MN, delivered a thoroughly professional
venue for a critical meeting of a growing list of stakeholders and businessfolk,
government reps, academics and journalists. Stalwart industry groups comprised
the backbone of conference sponsors - prominently featured were ISRI, the Marcee
Project/Polymer Alliance Zone and others.

	The show featured plenty of posturing and announcement by all, although the
grail of a US National funding mechanism for E*Waste was not delivered. One
thing was very clear, however. Since the European Union, now the largest
economic entity in the world, has set a stake in the ground with its WEEE and
ROHS directives, events in the US have set an inevitable course for dramatic and
lasting change in "end-of-life" electronics programs. Here at E*Scrap 2004,
unlike the recent NRC in San Francisco, the problems unique to product reuse
were rarely discussed. 

	Among notable developments were: the NEPSI process will conclude following a
final report in December; Australia-based Sims Group has acquired a string of
metal scrap processors in Western Europe; an offer by a People's Republic of
China state-backed company to buy controlling shares in Noranda, the Canadian
Parliament may intervene; HP's recent collection experiment with selected retail
stores resulted in 425,000 items being brought in - the largest EWaste
collection to date - particularly high volumes in California and Washington
state are thought to reflect a higher consumer awareness in those places. More
details on the HP event are being closely held as HP proprietary data - their
right since they paid "a lot of money" to fund the event. HP did imply on the
mike that their retail partners did shoulder some of the costs of the collection
event. The theory is that E*Waste collections at retail stores generate valuable
consumer visits.

	How to describe the ecosystem of participants? At the back end of our
picture lies the industrial capacity to demanufacture, process, recycle and
dispose of the indescribable mountains of electronics now piling up. Dozens of
companies of varying sizes showed state-of-the-art processing equipment, while
the largest processors of scrap metals in the world shook hands and talked
business. Many processing machines presented broke new ground for sheer physical
force, disintegrating metals and fiberglass into fragments or less. For example,
one machine was essentially a two-story tall tub, with a center axis rotating a
mammoth chain with links almost a meter long each. Pour your electronics into
the tub, its as easy as that!  Another was essentially a cutting wheel with
diamond tipped teeth, laid horizontally and fed within a sealed enclosure,
circulating air at very high compression. Not much of the electronics left after
that treatment! The result is essentially dust. The use of force-based
destruction seems to reflect a move away from chemical and heat processes, and
the poisons they unleash.

	Several companies offered E*Waste collection event management - still a new
beast in many parts of the US. Unicore consistently pitched its prison-labor
'de-man' services to attendees. Small companies offering straight material
handling sought to expand their markets. Some pitched a few new processing
plants in North America, while brokers and others played the exports numbers
back and forth amongst themselves.

	Plenary panels included an impressive array of industry figures speaking for
hours on trends and issues. Cell phones were highlighted, along with Calif.'s
new cell phone takeback law; though there are no lack of cell phone collection
programs out there, the sheer numbers make it clear that we are far from solving
that challenge. Plastics were discussed at length. Legislative topics were
dished out. An analysis of Maine, California and Massachusettes state programs
were presented by key administrators from their respective states. Minnesota
State, along with Hennepin County as host locale got deservedly special
representation in many sessions. Current research in E*Waste toxicity and
lifecycle was bandied about. 

	A complex, multi-faceted picture begins to emerge, including players,
processing capacity, exports and their economics, labor, logistics, legislation
and public awareness.  Not static figures, trends and formative events were laid
out in relentless detail. Although scrap materials economics are somewhat
healthy, we are far from realizing an Industrial Ecology vision, and have real
work to do to get there. E*Scrap 2004 played its part in the unfolding of
working systems, and played it well.