Buried in e-waste: electronic waste--often dangerously toxic--is becoming a landfill nightmare.

Computers, televisions and other electronic products are producing a worrisome byproduct. Across the country, billions of tons of potentially dangerous e-waste are piling up in landfills, warehouses and homes.

The problem is getting more significant every year as innovations quickly render electronic products obsolete. "It's a very important issue that's just growing exponentially," says Virginia Delegate Brian Moran, who passed a bill last year directing the state to encourage recycling.

FASTEST GROWING MUNICIPAL WASTE

By some estimates, electronic products constitute the fastest growing category of municipal waste. More than 500 million computers will be discarded by 2007, resulting in the need to dispose of 6.3 billion pounds of plastic and 1.6 billion pounds of lead, according to the National Safety Council. Older televisions, cellular telephones, printers, fax machines, microwave ovens and other products also contain potentially hazardous materials.

In many states, concerned legislators and regulators are debating such steps as banning cathode ray tubes (CRTs) from landfills, imposing fees to fund recycling programs and directing state agencies to study ways to reduce the amount of waste.

"This will be an enormous burden on state and local governments on the pretty near-term horizon," says David Wood, executive director of the Grass Roots Recycling Network in Madison, Wis. "It's worth getting out in front of the problem before it overwhelms us."

But policymakers face challenges. Although many in government and industry want to encourage recycling, they face a deep divide over how to fund such programs. Another thorny issue is whether to ban electronic devices from landfills--and whether such a ban would be effective.

Only about 11 percent of obsolete computers are recycled, according to an Environmental Protection Agency estimate. That's partly because many consumers live far from recycling centers, and they may have to pay a fee to get the equipment recycled.

In some areas, local governments foot the bill to pick up old computers and other electronic devices once or twice a year. Some manufacturers and retailers also take back certain products for recycling. And nonprofit organizations often accept donations of computers and other outdated electronics.

A POTENTIAL HEALTH THREAT

Most computer monitors and televisions use CRTs, which contain several pounds of lead. Other hazardous materials in electronic devices include cadmium, mercury, copper and fire retardant chemicals.

The products are usually harmless in garages and basements because the hazardous materials are safely stored in metal, glass and other casing. In a landfill, however, they can break during compaction. Solid waste experts are divided over whether the products can contaminate local water supplies or otherwise affect the environment, since landfill liners are designed to prevent metals and other substances from leaking out.

There are persistent concerns, however, that the liners are not foolproof. And even if the materials can safely be contained within a landfill, many believe that the products should be recycled instead of taking till landfill space.

"How much junk do we put in the land that we could otherwise keep out?" asks North Carolina Representative Joe Hackney, sponsor of a bill that would provide binding for electronic recycling programs. "You've got to look at good stewardship."

At present, the EPA regulates electronic devices under the Resource Conservation and Recoverv Act, which bars commercial and industrial users from disposing of materials in landfills or incinerators that pose a threat of environmental contamination. Businesses have to treat CRTs as hazardous waste, rising special carriers and disposing of them in a special facility. The EPA is considering redesignating CRTs as reusable products to promote recycling.

Some states, including California, Minnesota and Massachusetts, have taken the step of banning CRTs from landfills. Experts caution, however, that such bans need to be accompanied by vigorous recycling programs or frustrated residents will hide electronic devices in the trash or even dump them in ditches. Ominously, much U.S. e-waste is winding up in China and other nations, where impoverished residents disassemble them for parts--often without protecting themselves or the environment.

Wisconsin Representative Mark Miller, who has sponsored legislation to require manufacturers to oversee the recycling of their products, says he thinks a landfill ban can backfire. "I specifically did not go with a landfill ban. You end up collecting all the junk, sending it to China and causing tremendous environmental harm where it is taken apart," he says.

GETTING AT THE PROBLEM

One widely discussed approach to the e-waste problem is to impose a fee on new electronic equipment that is used to fund recycling programs.

This is California's approach. A landmark measure requires residents to pay a recycling fee of between $6 and $10 (as of July 1) when they buy electronics that contain CRTs--mainly televisions and computer monitors. The law, which is the first of its kind in the nation, covers mail-order and Internet sales as well as in-store transactions.

"We hope that our program will become a successful model, either for other states or for the federal government," says its sponsor, Senator Bryon Sher.

An alternative response to the proliferation of e-waste is to require manufacturers to develop anti fund programs to collect and recycle the devices they produce. Legislators in several states, including New York, Rhode Island, Texas and Washington, have introduced bills to make manufacturers responsible. So far, none has passed.

Wood says if manufacturers are responsible, they will have an incentive to come up with solutions to the problem of e-waste. "A flat fee assessed at the point of purchase doesn't encourage innovation," he says. "It's a source of cash, but it doesn't get at the root of the problem."

The industry is torn between the two approaches. Some companies prefer the recycling fee, such as IBM; others, such as Dell and Hewlett-Packard, prefer handling the collection and recycling themselves.

"We're all over the board on the financing issue," says Heather Bowman, director of environmental affairs for the Electronic Industries Alliance.

She warns that most electronic manufacturers are global companies with limited insight into the recycling situation of every state. If state legislators decide to make the manufacturers responsible for collection and recycling, she said they need to understand that the manufacturers may not know about small, local recycling companies.

THE NEXT STEPS

The electronics industry has formed the National Electronics Product Stewardship Initiative, which is an effort to create a unified position and propose a national recycling program to Congress.

She thinks state legislators should hold off passing their own plans until Congress acts.

"A state-by-state approach is only going to lead to a piecemeal solution," she says. "We need a national solution, and we need it to make sense to consumers."

But Senator Sher's advice to lawmakers in other states is to plow ahead. "This is a group that has been meeting for a long time trying to get a national solution," he says of the industry initiative.

He and other recycling advocates also want to see manufacturers eventually design products that are easier to recycle. This may involve using materials that are less toxic and easier to disassemble, and designing products in such a way that they can be easily updated instead of swiftly becoming obsolete.

The European Union is already taking steps in this direction. By 2006, it is expected to limit the amount of toxic materials used in electronic products.

"The ultimate answer is that manufacturers would be designing and creating products with reuse or recycling in mind," says Rusty Lundberg, solid waste branch manager of the Utah Division of Solid and Hazardous Waste. "Once something had served its use, it could easily be taken apart."

RHODE ISLAND COLLECTS 600,000 POUNDS OF E-WASTE

Rhode Island launched the country's first statewide no-charge residential computer collection in 2001 with impressive success.

Results are mind-boggling for a state with a population of slightly more than 1 million. More than 600,000 pounds of residential e-waste has been collected in three years. Citizens drop off computers at collection sites throughout the state. State vendors pick them up and recycle the waste. Officials say public service ads are vital to the program's success.

The computer collection program is operated by a quasi-public state agency established by the legislature in 1974. The Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation was established to assist municipalities in developing and operating recycling and waste collection programs.

Some legislators want to also address e-waste from the producer side. A bill to require electronics manufacturers to finance reuse and recycling and phase out the use of hazardous materials in their production is pending in the House.

--Denise Griffin, NCSL 

THERE'S HELP ON THE WEB

Several organizations maintain helpful Web sites about electronic waste and recycling. Here is a sampling:

* The Computer TakeBack Campaign, a national advocacy group, has background on the issue of electronic waste (including state legislative updates) at www.computertakeback.com/index.cfm

* The Electronics Industry Association maintains a Web site for consumers interested in finding out more about recycling and reusing electronics equipment at www.eiae.org

* The Environmental Protection Agency has background about the issue of electronic waste and recycling at www.epa.gov/epaoswer/osw/conserve/clusters/ecycle.htm

* The International Association of Electronics Recyclers provides information about recycling at www.iaer.org

* The National Safety Council's Environmental Health Center offers an overview on recycling and donating electronic equipment. See www.nsc.org/ehc/epr2.htm

* The Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, an advocacy group that tracks electronic waste issues, has information about the hazards of electronic waste at www.svtc.org

David Hosansky is a writer in Colorado who specializes in environmental and science issues. He previously covered federal issues as a senior writer at Congressional Quarterly and state government issues in Tallahassee at the Florida Times-Union.