That’s a lot of monitors. And keyboards, television sets, cell phones, laptops, printers and other high-toxicity, low-reuse value e-junk.
And you’re paying for it, California.
In its sixth year in operation, the state’s electronic-waste recycling program recently collected its billionth — with a “B” — pound of unwanted, obsolete or otherwise discarded technology, the San Jose Mercury News reported.
California was the first state in the union to pass an e-waste recycling law, perhaps logical seeing as how the nation’s technology industry was birthed in Silicon Valley. But California is now lagging behind other states in the e-waste program, the newspaper reported — this is the only state in which consumers are charged a recycling fee up front when they purchase monitors and other electronics that will eventually become junk. In other states, that fee is paid by the industry and manufacturers, not the consumers.
Source: NBCBayArea.com
By Chris Roberts