How Can We Do Our Part To "e-cycle" Old Electronics?

Question

What's involved, and why does it wind up costing the consumer money in some cases to discard of electronic parts ??

Which states mandate it by law; which states are still too lax about it?

Answer 1

What's involved depends on what items are being recycled. Some items contain mercury and other heavy metals.

As far as state mandates, or lack thereof, I don't have that information, but it should  be fairly accessible on the web.

In Los Angeles county (where I live) there is a hazardous/e-waste round-up every weekend. The location changes each week, so it eventually comes to every town. You don't even need to get out of you car, people in haz-mat suits remove the items for you.

I moved back to Southern California last year from Portland, Oregon. There were equally good resources there for disposing of e-waste.

Hope that helps.

Edit-

oops, I just realized I failed to answer the first part of your question. What can we do? Recycle all of our e-waste. Most cell phones come with a pre-paid envelope to mail in phones for recycling. take advantage of them! I recycle all easily recyclable e-waste on a regular basis- rechargeable batteries (including power tool batteries) can be recycled many places such as Home Depot, Lowes, Best Buy, Circuit City, etc.. I also recycle my cell phones and chargers via the envelopes mentioned above.

For items that are less easily recycled, I put them aside until the e-waste roundup comes to my area (about ince a year).

I recycle EVERYTHING electronic. Even non-hazardous items like boom boxes, mixers, etc.. It keeps them out of the landfill.