California Recycles its 1 Billionth Pound of E-waste

Date: June 5, 2011

Source: News Room

The golden state of California says it has recycled 1 billion pounds of electronics waste (e-waste) since it first passed a law in Sep. 2003, the first of any state to do so. The state estimates that 1 billion pounds equates to 20 million computers and televisions that have been diverted from landfills. Since then 24 other states have passed similar measures. However, California is the only state that funds its program by charging consumers an upfront fee at the point of purchase rather than charging manufacturers, known as the producer pays model that is employed in most of the other states with e-waste laws. California then distributes the funds to recyclers based on the tonnage of material recycled, but that has led to fraud and e-waste appearing from other states. Meanwhile, manufacturers, including the Consumer Electronics Association, complain that they have to comply with a patchwork of 25 different state requirements.

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