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California Considering Recycling Fees on PCs

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the nickel-deposit dept.

Jeff writes: "It looks like two US senators are introducing bills that would impose recycling fees on new computer systems sold. These bills look to cover every high-tech product a consumer might buy, including computer and video monitors, desktop and notebook PCs, and handheld gadgets."

7 of 312 comments (clear)

  1. Recycling Fees by DimitryP · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If these bills pass, does this mean that we will have to pay a recycling fee when we buy the computer, and then pay a recycling company to do it, or will the recycling itself actually be free now?

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    1. Re:Recycling Fees by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 3, Interesting

      You missed my point. My point was: We're not generating anything more than what we already have.

      If you're just going to bean-count atoms without giving any thought to the compounds they're in, that's correct. But it's not a meaningful perspective. Atoms can be in reactive or inert forms. There are a few elements that are environmentally dangerous in whatever form they're in (mostly the radioactive stuff). The great majority are OK in some forms and not in others. Only one element (helium) is never toxic. And it's the only one that eventually floats away and leaves the planet.

      Phosphorous is 1-2% of your body weight, and forms part of the DNA backbone. But it's always in the form of phosphate (PO4---). Take the oxygens off it, and 50 mg will kill you. Oxygen in the form of ozone can kill you if you breathe it in. Nitrogen and oxygen can combine to create quite a few nasty gases. When it's in the form of cinnabar (HgS), mercury is certainly dangerous but at least it has low solubility and can sit around for billions of years without leaching. (In sulfur containing environments, HgS is an important sink for mercury.) Although mercuric salts are toxins and have long been used in detective stories to kill people, mercurous chloride can be used as a laxative! When elemental mercury sinks down into deep places at the bottoms of lakes and wells, bacteria there get rid of it by methylating it- and then it starts causing serious trouble.

      Environmentally, a computer is probably the most dangerous thing you own. They're chock full of all kinds of weird metals and halogenated flame retardant crap. And no matter how nice it is, you're eventually going to throw it away. When recycling computers, I believe what they do is chop everything up in a grinder, and then they blast the stuff in a furnace until it's all oxides of things. Then they mix in a binder, and they make "cakes" out of it that look a bit like cinder blocks. When it's been bound up this way, its environmental impact is minimal.

  2. Safety deposit by Colosse · · Score: 3, Interesting

    They could get a safety deposit on every part sold, thus inciting peoples to dispose of their computers in a proper way. Just like they do for consigned containers here. You pay an ammount and you get it back when you bring your computer to a proper recycling facilitie. They could have this money prosper during your years of usage and thus fund recycling companies without charging an extra tax.

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    Colosse.
  3. Re:Why oh why can't they do things right. by hey! · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This is absolutely correct.

    What they should do is charge a deposit on electronic equipment, and pay you to return it to the recycling cengter.
    ,p>

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  4. Donate! by CrazyBrett · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Obviously this doesn't work if the hardware is broken, but if it's just "old", donate it to local schools! There are still plenty of public schools with drastically underfunded computer budgets, and they could definitely use whatever they can get. Hey, if you were feeling extra generous, you could even pre-install linux for them!

  5. Re:We already got these taxes in Europe by wangi · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Well, well, well... "Europe" is it? A big place to be that generic about! :)

    I was reading in my newspaper last week that the UK, and Scotland in particular are the worst for recycling in the world... I'd try and find a reference, but i've binned the paper (landfill I bet). Even worse than the US, which really amazed me.

    We're (i'm Scottish) are actually going backward - when I was 'wee' you could get a deposit back on glass bottles. The recycle facilities at the local supermarket were actually REMOVED last year (and Edinburgh tries to say it's 'Cosmopolitan'!). The year before that the council were saving money by just landfilling the 'to-be-recycled' items...

    It's a wonderful place!

  6. In Europe... by quantaman · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Although I don't know for sure I've heard that in some places in Europe a company is responsible for paying for the recycling of the packaging from their products (i.e. McDonalds held responsible for the piles of styrofoam boxes and cups on the sides of the highway).

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