California, Minnesota Begin E-Waste Hearings

Date: June 20, 2002

Source: News Room

Sooner or later, consumers are likely to bear some of the financial burden of cleaning up their electronics. In California two bills on Monday go before the state Assembly's Natural Resources Committee that would impose a point-of-purchase fee of as much as $30 on each CRT (cathode ray tube) monitor sold in the state. The money collected would go to establishing a program to encourage recovery, reuse and recycling of the devices when consumers are ready to toss them out. And on the same day in Minnesota, participants in the National Electronics Product Stewardship Initiative will be gathering for a key meeting en route to what many hope will be a nationwide electronics recycling system that has the support of both government and industry. The group's last meeting two months ago produced a draft document proposing a "front-end fee"--that is, a few more dollars on the price tag of a PC or television set.

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