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Mandatory Hardware Recycling Coming To US?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the send-me-your-tired-your-obsolete dept.

BDPrime writes, "A U.S. congressional caucus has met twice to discuss proposing national legislation that would make hardware manufacturers responsible for taking back their own stuff, similar to what Europe implemented with WEEE (PDF). The story quotes David Douglas, one of Sun's eco-evangelists, reflecting on the alternative: 'If we were having to deal with local regulations and local disposition facilities in every state, to deal with every state's nuanced costs, that would clearly involve cost to our basic equipment.'" It's early days for this movement; the buzzword to watch here is "E-waste."

3 of 218 comments (clear)

  1. It's already here by dave562 · · Score: 2, Informative

    One of my clients is in the waste management industry and they are already dealing with regulations from the State of California that prevents them from accepting televisions, CRTs or flat panel displays. The governator passed legislation that requires special disposal of the afforementioned products and of course, that disposal requires a fee that the consumer must pay.

  2. Re:Why stop there? by fructose · · Score: 2, Informative

    You do realize that over 90% of the steel in cars and at least 25% of appliances (fridges, washers/dryers) comes from recycled steel? More info here: http://www.recycle-steel.org/

  3. Re:Does This Apply To Foreign Manufacturers? by witte · · Score: 2, Informative

    If foreign manufacturers want to sell it on the EU market, they have to accept the EU rules of business.
    (You can substitute "EU" with "US" or "South Africa" or any other nation.)
    They could always choose to not do business... but that's unlikely :-)