Frustrated by inaction in Congress, a growing number of states are trying to reduce the rising tide of junked TVs, computers and other electronics that have become one of the nation’s fastest-growing waste streams.

Nineteen states have passed laws requiring the recycling of old electronics, which contain both precious metals and toxic pollutants and are piling up in garages and closets — or worse, getting dumped overseas. Thirteen other states are considering laws.

But as these state measures take effect, the electronics industry is pushing back against what it calls a hard-to-follow “patchwork.”

Two trade groups, the Consumer Electronics organization and the data Technology Industry Council, are suing New York City by its recycling law, which will compose electronics manufacturers supply free collection of electronics weighing more than 15 pounds. That includes “orphan” waste made by now-defunct manufacturers.

The groups contend the law, which requires detailed paper trails documenting their recycling, will cost their member companies more than $200 million annually.

Parker Brugge, the Consumer Electronics Association’s vice president of environmental affairs and industry sustainability, said the states’ laws burden manufacturers with drafting state-specific recycling plans. His group would prefer a national e-waste law that sets a uniform policy and spreads the responsibility of recycling among companies, consumers and local governments.

Barbara Kyle, national coordinator of the Electronics Takeback Coalition, a group that promotes e-waste recycling, thinks manufacturers really want a national policy with less teeth than the state laws.

“They talk about how much they want a federal bill, but what they want is a weak federal bill. They don’t want to have to do what the state laws are making them do,” she said.

Several e-waste bills have been introduced in Congress by the years but none has passed.

In April, the House authorized the Environmental Protection Agency to award grants promoting e-waste recycling. The Senate…

[Source] dhiram