Comments on: Reader Response: The E-Cycling Debate

By: Ryan Crownholm

Ryan Crownholm — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:41:26 +0000

Seems to me that either way the burden will fall to the consumer. Whether it is a few dollars charged at point of sale or electronics manufacturers raising prices to cover the takeback program. It seems like it would be easier to pay at the point of sale because most manufacturers are based overseas.

By: Should E-waste Be Collected Curbside? - Earth911.com

Should E-waste Be Collected Curbside? - Earth911.com — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 20:33:37 +0000

[...] of respondents think recycling is the proper way to dispose of e-waste, and 14 percent are willing to pay to recycle [...]

By: Lyon

Lyon — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 19:21:08 +0000

+1 on that. I’d gladly pay an extra few bucks to guarantee that the product I am buying will have an acceptable end-of-life disposal. For more on Life Cycle Analysis listen to this clip: http://www.morethansound.net/samples/Ecological-Awareness_in_15-minutes.mp3
In the third section, Daniel Goleman talks with Greg Norris, whose open-source LCA platform offers ubiquitous empowerment for businesses to quantify and lessen the negative environmental impacts of each product’s life cycle.

By: Shane DiGiorgio

Shane DiGiorgio — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 19:00:38 +0000

I would prefer to not pay a fee but that’s only because I know of a drop off center in my area that is 99% landfill free. I live in Huntington Beach, California & have found that Orange Coast Computers & Recycling is free, convenient, keeps normal business hours 6 days a week. They will even unload your E-waste from your vehical. http://www.monitorheaven.com

Why should I have to pay more, when I know my electronics will be disposed of responsibly?

Maybe if there was some way to get my $ back if say I used an EPA approved Electronic waste recycler.

By: Rachel White

Rachel White — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 01:46:22 +0000

I would pay a couple of extra bucks in a heartbeat! As your post correctly notes, e-waste is a huge problem: According to the EPA, the United States generated over 3 tons of electronic waste in the year of 2007 alone. Close to 85% of this was landfilled or incinerated here. Most of the remaining 15% was shipped overseas for recycling; however overseas “recycling” frequently occurs under conditions that are unsafe for workers and the environment (for more, check out http://www.theelectronicstakeback.com). Clearly the systems that are currently in place in this country for recycling electronics aren’t working. It’s hard to even call existing recycling programs “systems” as they are frequently hard to access, haphazard and confusing.

I consider myself lucky to live in a city (Newton, MA) that collects electronics for recycling–even though I have to deliver them myself to the recycling center which is, of course, only open limited hours. But where do my old electronics go from there? I don’t know the answer to this question and I’m not sure I want to know.

Consumers, manufacturers, and government need to work together to solve this problem. I would be relieved to pay a little more for my next electronic gadget if I knew that the old one would be responsibly recycled.