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States Push Makers' Role In Disposing of Electronic Waste

Posted by timothy on from the pretty-well-known-huh dept.

AaronParsons writes "An interesting NY Times article describes currently available programs for post-consumer electronics. One of the many interesting points in the article is that electronics manufacturers should be held responsible for recycling their products post-consumer: 'Maybe since they have some responsibility for the cleanup, it will motivate them to think about how you design for the environment and the commodity value at the end of the life.'"

7 of 199 comments (clear)

  1. This is a terrible idea by Art+Popp · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I live in Washington and take my old computers to RePC. They charge a fee, $5 to $10 a unit that depends entirely on the labor to rip it apart into its "differently recycled pieces." They have huge heaps of PCBs in one pile, metal caes in another, I assume crushable plastic was hiding behind those.

    If you get the federal government involved they will put a tax on the manufacturers (which we will pay for our new toys), and then they'll go spend it elsewhere (e.g. social security). That's inane. I'm sorry the mega-corps have to deal with all the state laws, but they have lawyers for that sort of thing already.

    Even if the money collected were in a closed loop, (which it won't be), having the consumer put the five dollar bills in the hands of the company doing the work seems vastly more efficient than anything that we could do with "national taxes by weight/volume/content," "recycling-prepaid" stamps and typical regulation details.

    1. Re:This is a terrible idea by Itninja · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I agree that getting big-fed involved is a bad idea. But anything that encourages electronics makers to use pressed cornmeal for gadget housing is fine by me. And you know those 'recycle your electronics' places are mostly just a feel-good business right? There is absolutely no regulation or anything else that prevents them from taking all those heaps of scrap where ever it's cheapest (even if it's a landfill).

      --
      I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
    2. Re:This is a terrible idea by jedidiah · · Score: 4, Insightful

      THIS is where the real problem is.

      The Feds should stop beating up on the industry and instead beat up on the Municipal governements.

      Dealing with trash is what they are supposed to be responsible for.

      I shouldn't have to do anything more than put my electronics in the
      recycling bin with the rest of the stuff they're supposed to be
      recycling. Although my town has odd limits on stuff you would think
      would be pretty trivial to recycle already.

      In general, they seem to be cost cutting a bit too much and forget that
      the garbage men are ultimately there to help prevent the next outbreak
      of the BLACK DEATH. Automated trucks that leave the street covered in
      trash kind of defy the point.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
  2. Paradigm by bwthomas · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I find it interesting that we're willing to push this as an ad hoc solution but not a paradigm. Maybe all manufacturers should be forced to take responsibility for the amount of waste their products generate, not just the makers of soda cans & computers?

  3. Re:This is Bullshit by Darkness404 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    While this post is written in an inflammatory style, I would have to say that I agree with it. It makes no sense for companies to have to recycle things that they made years down the line. There are some things that /will/ go obsolete no matter how "green" you design them. Heck, governments create part of it too (look at the DTV transition). You make a product and you sell it, once it is sold you should have no liability for the product unless it was defective or unsafe along with limits on when you can get damages. For example, 30 years from now if we find that the glass used in the iPhone caused skin deformities but Apple could have no knowledge of that, it makes no sense to sue Apple for that. Similarly, when I want to throw away an old computer, its not the computer makers fault that I want to throw it away.

    --
    Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
  4. earth is a closed loop system by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    We need to start treating it like one.

  5. Re:Every product needs this by schon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Wouldn't this be a good idea for all products?

    Yes.

    The only downside I see is higher prices

    No, the price remains the same - the disposal cost exists whether it's paid by the manufacturer or the consumer. The only difference is that it all needs to be paid up-front, rather than the disposal cost being paid after the product's useful life.