Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - Features

NEW YORK – The Natural Resources Defense Council has endorsed the first certification program for electronics recycling.

With the Basel Action Network’s e-Stewards Certification and Standard, independent auditors in North America validate safe disposal of hundreds of tons of electronics each year.

The first firms to be certified to the standard and those gaining e-Steward Enterprise designations will be revealed this March.

Certification criteria include not dumping toxic e-waste in landfills or incinerators; not exporting to developing countries or sending to prisons, and being accountable for the full recycling process.

The NRDC and Basel Action Network request all electronics recyclers become e-Steward Certified.

Funding will be provided by the 14 recycling firms designated as e-Steward Founders: Boliden AB, California Electronic Asset Recovery, Cascade Asset Management, ECS Refining, Electronic Recyclers International, GreenCitizen, Hesstech, Metech, Redemtech, RELectronics, the Surplus Exchange, Total Reclaim, Waste Management Recycle America, and WeRecycle!.

Right now, 50 recyclers are considered pledged e-Stewards. Other large electronics recyclers in North America are expected to be certified within the next 18 months.

SENECA, PA – The Matric Group, parent of EMS companies Matric and Dynamic Manufacturing, and R2J Technologies have acquired MLS Electrosystem, a manufacturer of blade pitch control systems for utility grade wind turbines.

No financial terms were disclosed.

The firm will be renamed Windurance LLC.

The Matric Group manufactures pitch control systems, which it will provide to Windurance.

R2J Technologies will provide design and engineering capabilities to the renamed firm.

NELSON, BC – Contract assembler Pacific Insight Electronics reported fiscal second-quarter sales of $7.41 million, essentially flat with last year.

MORRISVILLE, NC -- Juki Automation Systems today became the latest assembly equipment company to sign up to exhibit at Virtual PCB, the industry's only online trade show.

STOCKHOLM -- Note AB today said net sales fell 30% for the December period to to SEK 291.5 million ($39.8 million), while the net losses improved to SEK 9.9 million ($1.35 million), up from 36.6 million a year ago. The firm will further restructure to boost profits, it said.

VINH PHUC, VIETNAM – Foxconn International Holdings’ on-again, off-again cellphone plant in Vietnam is on again, according to local media reports.