Disposal Danger

Electronic waste (E-waste) encompasses a broad and growing range of electronic devices ranging from personal computers and televisions, to handheld PDAs, VCRs, and cellular phones. Where once consumers purchased a stereo console or television set with the expectation that it would last for a decade or more, the increasingly rapid evolution of technology has effectively rendered everything disposable.

Each computer or television display contains an average of 4 to 8 pounds of lead. The 300+ million computers that became obsolete between 1997 and 2004 contain more than 1.2 billion pounds of lead. Monitor glass contains about 20% lead by weight. When these components are illegally disposed of and crushed in landfills, the lead is released into the environment, posing a hazardous legacy for current and future generations. Consumer electronics already constitute 40% of lead found in landfills. About 70% of the heavy metals (including mercury and cadmium) found in landfills comes from electronic equipment discards. These heavy metals and other hazardous substances found in electronics can contaminate groundwater and pose other environmental and public health risks.

Electronic waste already constitutes from 2% to 5% of the US municipal solid waste stream and is growing rapidly.

As a hazardous waste, the disposal of CRTs in California municipal solid waste landfills is prohibited. Additionally, collection of CRTs, whether for recycling or disposal, must be regulated and permitted as a hazardous waste activity. Other states, including Massachusetts, Minnesota and Maine, have taken similar steps. In those states without specific landfill bans for CRTs, any non-residential CRT containing hazardous waste is banned from land filling under national hazardous waste laws.