22 Mar
2005
22 Mar
'05
5:49 p.m.
On Tue, 22 Mar 2005, jim stephens wrote:
Some idiot in the gooverment decided that they are
toxic waste,
and should not be included in the normal disposal stream so now
in CA we cannot simply discard them.
What "idiot" decided that lead and mercury were toxic to humans and were
leeching into the water tables? Probably an informed one.
This sounds good, but as usual with government
solutions was not
well thought out. By requiring you to pay a fee to simply dump a
CRT that you don't want, you've given the user the choice of being
good and paying it, or finding a back yard or vacant lot and tossing
it. I predict that now, rather than having people turn them into
goodwill on a donation, and having goodwill (and other such places
that take in things like this) unwanted systems will now start to
appear in places where they can do harm if broken open.
Recycling companies in California (and elsewhere) have been charging
people to drop off monitors for at least 4 years now. Guess what? People
are paying the fees and not bitching. Furthermore, I don't see any
televisions or monitors dumped in fields. Your belated prediction hasn't
panned out. Most people realize it's for the good of the environment and
ultimately their health and well-being. That's surely worth a measley
$10, no?
The fee was initially instituted by companies when the state declared CRTs
as hazardous waste. It took years of bungling for California to finally
come up with a plan to reimburse recyclers for their time and expense in
recycling CRTs so that consumers could recycle monitors without having to
pay a fee. Now, whenever you buy a new computer, you pay an additional
recycling fee for the display. In 5 or so years, when you're ready to
upgrade or toss the display, you are supposed to just be able to take it
somewhere and drop it off. It works kind of in the same way that bottle
and can recycling does. Unfortunately, the program is probably not going
to work and it's going to take a while to iron out some serious bugs (this
is what happens when the morons we "elect" to represent us cave in to
special interests rather than acting in the public interest).
And you could actually pay places like goodwill to
take them, and
get them ready for recycle by doing such things as breaking out the
crt's and electronics and putting them in separate streams of refuse,
with only the CRT's going to a special place, since the electronics
have much more value.
Goodwill and other thrift stores never charged for taking stuff. As we've
been discussing, they used to take in computers and monitors but when it
started to cost them to dispose of the stuff they couldn't sell they
stopped taking them. As far as I know, Goodwill was never in the business
of CRT dismantling (although they could and should be in my opinion).
Lastly, the CRT (whole and undamaged) is actually more valuable than the
electronics. Unless the monitor still works, the electronics are almost
worthless.
so, soon you all will discover that you are all
horrible hoarders of
toxic waste, in line with gun owners who have "arsenals" and will
make the headlines when you croak, and your old computers have
to be disposed of by unenlighened relatives, who discover that
they would have to pay a fortune to dispose of all of them.
I wouldn't be so dramatic. True, they would represent a hassle for
someone who had to dispose of them in the event of one's untimely demise.
But it's no different than figuring out what to do with any of the
contents of one's home when one passes. Some stuff you can sell; some you
can throw away at no cost; and other stuff you have to pay to get rid of.
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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