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

What about other appliances?

[Firethorn]

Why single out computers?

I mean, what about all the other appliances that tend to hit landfills, such as refridgerators, dishwashers, washers&dryers, televisions, radios, etc...?

With the newer controls and electronics many of these contain, I would tend to argue that there aren't any materials found in computers that aren't in these.

I think that Dell's got a cheap recycling program figured out(ship them to china?), and is trying to use this to muscle out the competition, which can't arrange disposal of old machines as easily.

Then there's the whole issue of what happens if the retailer is out of business when the customer goes to recycle his or her computer...

Re:What about other appliances?

[truckaxle]

I mean, what about all the other appliances that tend to hit landfills, such as refridgerators, dishwashers, washers&dryers, televisions, radios, etc...?

Right on.

I always thought a good policy would be to have manufactures put a recycling fee into an escrow account (that earns a nominal interest for the manufacture) at the time of sale to large resource intensive consumer goods like computers, refrigerators, stoves, etc.

The product would have a bar code and whenever the registered local landfill or recycling depot receives the disposed product they scan the bar code and are credited for the recycling fee from the escrow account.

This has the following benefits....

• Places the burden of disposal up front with the purchase of the product. This is fair economics as it places the burden on those who benefit from the product (both sale and use) .
  
  
• Source of income (instead of burden) for local landfill/recycling depots and could favor recycling.
  
  
• Encourage manufactures to build long lived products and to support products with *replacement parts* since the longer the product remains in service the more interest the manufactures earns. This is my favorite benefit, as I have thrown away Would generate real-world statistics on product longevity and reward manufactures for building quality. If a manufactures builds a lemon like a GE Refrigerator I had, this statistics would be public accessible knowledge and maybe even support class-action suits.
  

Smaller System Builders?

[Pantero Blanco]

Are smaller system builders considered "manufacturers"? That would explain why the bill got so much support from HP and Dell; it raises the cost of doing business.

Re:Texas?! Environmental responsibility? Holy crap

[Cid Highwind]

Hey, we *need* those plants to provide surplus generation capacity for the next time there's money to be made taking a plant (or five) offline in California and then selling them our electricity at triple the market rate!