Recycling the E-Recycling Law

As the NY Times is reporting today, the City Council, in a rare move, withdrew the recently passed electronic recycling bill and has decided to re-draft the measure in order to take the mayor's concerns about manufacturer mandates into consideration: "In an unusual move, the Council, after recalling the previously passed bill, immediately introduced a new bill that would establish the same recycling program while removing the original bill’s industry performance standards, which Mr. Bloomberg opposed."

Which is a good thing because the mayor had threatened to to put the law on ice by not implementing it if it passed over his veto-something that would have been self-defeating for those who want to see this kind of recycling go forward. The challenge ahead is to develop a compliance and collection methodology that will make sense; and unlike the plastic bag recycling bill, will actually work.

So the revised legislation will separate the bill into two parts: "Separating the issue into two bills, the mayor said, would allow the city to “move forward on the broad areas where we have reached consensus, instead of letting our differences stop all progress.” Now, however, as always-the devil will be in the details.