EPA plugs in. (Electronics Recycling).

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has kicked off a campaign called Plug-In To Recycling designed to encourage Americans to reuse or recycle used electronics.

In addition to the EPA, companies such as Best Buy, AT&T Wireless, Sony, Panasonic, Dell, Sharp, Recycle America, EnviroCycle Inc. and Nxtcycle are involved in the campaign. The program seeks to increase consumer awareness concerning the value of reusing and recycling electronics and to provide additional opportunities to reuse and recycle electronics throughout the country.

"In the past decade, electronics have spurred economic growth and improved our lives in countless ways, but our growing reliance on electronics has given rise to a new environmental challenge: safe and thoughtful management of electronic waste." Marianne Lamont Horinko, EPA assistant administrator for solid waste and emergency response, says.

The campaign is one of several new EPA efforts under the Agency's Resource Conservation Challenge (RCC), which seeks to increase the national recycling rate from 30 percent to 35 percent and to cut the generation of 30 harmful chemicals by 2005. Under the RCC, EPA is working with electronics manufacturers, retailers. recyclers, and government agencies to reduce the environmental impacts of electronic products during their production, use and disposal.