Texas Makes Green Computing Mandatory

athloi writes to mention that Texas legislators have passed a bill that would require computer companies to provide free recycling services to their customers for hardware purchased. "The bill (HB 2714) requires computer manufacturers to provide a "reasonably convenient" recycling plan that requires no additional payments from consumers. Dell and HP provided some model legislation that was used as the basis for the bill, which will only affect computers purchased for personal or home business use, but it could still encourage manufacturers to adopt efficient recycling programs that might then be applied to all machines sold."

Comments

Re:Dell charges $0, and they're still cheap

[schwaang]

It has to become garbage somewhere.

Yes, maybe at first. But Germany has a law that requires manufacturers to take things back for disposal. I think Japan has something similar. It is expected that manufacturers will as a result modify their designs to make disposal or reuse cheaper for themselves. The hope is that this means cutting down on the variety of different chemicals used, and substituting non-toxics where possible.

There is also a notion called Cradle to Cradle which is gaining ground.

So this Texas law could be the US starting to play catch-up.

There is also increasing awareness of the enviro-dumping you mention on the part of developed countries in India, China, Vietnam, etc.

It's a step-by-step process to fix this mess.