Getting Serious About Recycling

Every once in a while the newspaper carrier misdelivers the local paper. This morning’s top headline caught my eye -- “Tackling E-Trash” – so I dragged it inside. Instead of being about the woes of spam, as I initially suspected, the piece focused on abandoned and obslete computers and electronics equipment.

Immediately, I have this image of a junkyard filled not with cars, but with CRTs and towers and keyboards. You have the same visual? At any rate, my home state is crammed full of people. So it stands to reason that we have a garbage problem. I didn’t realize how profoundly, though, the rate of IT obsolence is effecting the infrastructure here. The Record reports that 2.4 million computers and monitors plus 600,000 TVs will be junked this year. (You can find the article here, although you probably have to register.) Kind of makes me feel guilty about the retired system sitting in my closet awaiting its fate and a reminder that I need to contact the National Cristina Foundation.

The problem, of course, is that these things are poisonous. (And yes, cell phones count, too.) Let’s just say that New Jersey’s groundwater and air quality doesn’t exactly need any more challenges.

So my state is considering a $7 to $10 tax on new computers to finance recycling programs. And I could be deemed a criminal if I decide to lug my electronic castoffs out to the curb (not that I would do that!), since the state also is seeking to put in place a strict recycling program.

The proposed legislation has already passed the state senate’s environmental committee, but I suspect local resellers and retailers will have some serious concerns, since it will put them at a disadvantage against those selling equipment off the Internet or in neighboring states.

Maine, Maryland and Caifornia have already passed electronics recycling laws. Here's some specific info. How will this activity impact your business? For ideas, you can read this story we published last year. How would you like to see it updated? E-mail me at hclancy@cmp.com.