Some environmental groups say the electronics industry is taking a good first step toward eliminating electronic waste such as old computers. But they say there’s a lot more to do before the problem is resolved. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
Some environmental groups say the electronics industry is taking a good first step toward eliminating electronic-waste such as old computers. But, they say there’s a lot more to do before the problem is resolved. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
A national organization representing the electronics industry says its members have agreed to consider increasing prices to cover the cost of recycling their products when they reach the end of their usefulness. However, several environmental groups pushing a Computer Take-Back Campaign say the agreement is not very specific — for instance it doesn’t go into how the program would actually work or how much electronic waste might be recovered. David Wood is the Program Director of the GrassRoots Recycling
Network.
“I’m not really sure that there is a deep commitment on the part of the electronics industry to really get to the end result.”
The environmental groups want the electronics manufacturers to include in their program a phase-out of hazardous materials such as mercury and lead that are used in many electronics products.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.