No matter which party dominates the upcoming general election in the U.S., the odds are good that e-waste legislation is going to get a lot tougher. Today there is no unified approach to e-waste legislation in the United States, and as a country we have not signed to support international initiatives such as the Basel accords.

But most other countries outside of the U.S. already have, which is one of the reasons that the Pepsi Bottling group turned to companies such as Redemtech to help them define a corporate approach to e-waste.

The reason that more companies are likely to become familiar with the requirements of the Basel accords comes down to the simple fact that most companies would prefer to have one Federal mandate to comply with compared to the 50 different state legislative requirements. At the same time, more U.S. companies are pursuing globalization strategies that will require them to come into compliance with the Basel accords.

Today the Basel accords right now amount to pretty much little more than a pledge. But there is a group called the Basel Action Network that is putting together a certification process that will enable people to conduct e-waste audits. E-waste handling not only has implications for the environment, it also has implications for security and privacy. That means it's only a matter of time before auditors get more actively involved. Unfortunately, a lot of the IT gear we use today is shipped to dumps mostly outside of the United States. What happens to a lot of the data stored on those devices between here and there is anybody's guess. As a result, it's important that companies start putting e-waste processes in place not only for the good of the planet, but perhaps more importantly their own self-preservation.

There is still a fair amount of time before the equivalent of an IT sanitation police force--complete with the power to levy fines--starts to emerge around all these pending e-waste legislative initiatives. But rather being forced into it in a reactionary way, companies just might find that taking a proactive approach to e-waste might not only help the environment, but also help them save some money as well.