June 7, 2011

It’s been eight years since California adopted a law banning electronics from landfills and six years since the state started an e-waste recycling program. Since then, the state has recycled more than one billion pounds of unwanted electronics. That amounts to about 20 million TVs and computers that have been kept out of landfills. California was the first state to pass an e-waste law and since then 24 other states have some type of electronic waste law on the books. North Carolina is about to become the next with a law banning televisions and computer equipment from landfills beginning July 1st.

To help fund the e-waste recycling program in California, consumers pay a fee of 6 to 10 dollars when they buy a new TV, laptop or computer monitor. Mercury News reports the money is used to pay recycling companies and collection organizations that gather and recycle the old electronics. California is the only state that charges consumers to fund a government-run program. Several states require the electronics industry to pay for and operate recycling programs.

More states are expected to pass or strengthen e-waste recycling laws and President Obama recently established an e-waste task force to develop a national strategy for electronic waste management and recycling. The electronics industry is also pitching in by announcing plans to triple e-cycling rates by 2016.