News, 24 States Now Ban Tossing Electronics (recycling, pollution, buying, disposal)
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Nearly half the states in the US now have laws requiring that most electronic equipment be recycled instead of dumped in the trash, the AP reports. Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina are the most recent states to ban simply tossing out old TVs, computers, video game consoles, stereo equipment, etc.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Fortunately some areas have free electronics recycling events, like one held at a school near us today. They accepted computers/monitors, TVs and other electronics at no charge. At my work we have bins where we can deposit old company or personal CFL bulbs, batteries and cell phones.
The solution to this is simply providing more places where people can dispose of their electronics.
Ever wonder what happens to those electronics after you toss em? They end up in garbage dumps in Africa where people spend hours collecting wire and circuit boards and stuff, and burning it in order to get at the metals used in those applications. Makes a helluva lot of pollution and causes a lot of sickness over there.
My state has had this law for years, but AFAIK has never been enforced. Everyone throws away their electronics. You can see them at the curb on trash day, and I've never seen the refuse hauler leave any electronics behind.
Here in CA we pay an "add on" fee (about $15) when purchasing a TV or computer that goes towards funding electronics disposal centers, to keep that stuff out of local landfills. Here in Orange County, the city of Irvine operates a fantastic, free, drive through disposal center for any TV, computer or other home electronics that a person wants to get rid of. I just took an old CRT screen TV there yesterday after buying a LCD HDTV at Wally Mart during a Christmas sale.
In my area, garbage collectors will not take home electronics on regular collections. They might have some special collections days for those items, but they don't go into the regular trash.
My state has had this law for years, but AFAIK has never been enforced. Everyone throws away their electronics. You can see them at the curb on trash day, and I've never seen the refuse hauler leave any electronics behind.
I've never seen any electronic stuff I've put out with the trash the night before pickup there in the morning when I leave for work for the trash men to pick up....
The law change here must be why I'm seeing more stuff turning up dumped in the woods.
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I've never seen any electronic stuff I've put out with the trash the night before pickup there in the morning when I leave for work for the trash men to pick up....
