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A Publication Featuring The Information
Services Technology of Maine State Government
| Volume VI, Issue 5 | May 2003 |
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Recently, DEP Solid Waste staff investigating a complaint found heaps of waste computer parts in someone’s back yard (see photos). Obviously, the landowner hadn’t read the June 2002 Maine IT newsletter article by Ann Pistell of the DEP! Ann’s article begins: No, your old computer would not make a good boat anchor, or lawn sculpture! Computers have toxic components. A typical computer processor and monitor contain five to eight pounds of lead, and other heavy metals such as cadmium, mercury and arsenic. This recently-discovered illegal dumping of hazardous waste highlights the on-going management problem posed by old computers and other electronic wastes.
Ann’s article (http://www.maine.gov/newsletter/june2002/what_do_you_do_when_your_.htm) encourages us to first reduce the amount of computer waste we generate by leasing computer equipment, by repairing rather than replacing when possible, and by buying upgradeable computers. A second way to reduce the amount of computer waste is to reuse computers by donating computers that still have useful life to charities or returning your computer to the manufacturer. See the June 2002 IT newsletter for more details on these options.
But at some point in time a computer is no longer useful to anyone. How can we prevent the toxic metals in computers from ending up in our air, water, or on our land? The answer is to be sure your old computer is recycled. Businesses already are required by law to recycle their old computers (go to the DEP’s web page www.maine.gov/dep/rwm/hazardouswaste/ for information to help businesses recycle computers). Pending final legislative approval this session, as of January 1, 2006 it also will be illegal in Maine to dispose of household CRT’s (cathode ray tubes in computer monitors and TV’s) in landfills and incinerators. This ban will have the effect of directing CRT’s from household computers and TV’s to recyclers, and is intended to prevent the release of hazardous metals into Maine’s environment.
The Maine DEP and the State Planning Office are working with municipalities to develop the infrastructure necessary to accept for recycling CRT’s and other computer components at transfer stations and recycling.centers. If you would like your local municipality to offer collection of CRT’s as a service to your community, grants to help establish programs are available from the State Planning Office (www.state.me.us/spo/recycle/ for more information).
The new Maine law banning the disposal of CRTs also requires the DEP to submit a report and draft legislation to the legislature in January, 2004 to implement a plan for the statewide collection and recycling of CRTs. This plan will be based on the concept of "product stewardship" and will require the manufacturers of CRTs to play a role in ensuring household computers in Maine are recycled. There’s a national group, the National Electronic Product Stewardship Institute, whose main product stewardship goal is "the development of a system, which includes a viable financing mechanism, to maximize the collection, reuse, and recycling of used electronics, while considering appropriate incentives to design products that facilitate source reduction, reuse and recycling; reduce toxicity; and increase recycled content." Maine’s future system for recycling CRTs can be one small part of such a system, and the first step in establishing recycling programs for all electronic wastes in Maine.
So, don’t do what one uneducated Maine citizen did with old computer components. Instead, be sure your old computer gets recycled by participating in municipal collection events or by contacting your computer manufacturer to take back their products which contain hazardous materials.
Carole Cifrino is an Environmental Specialist with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. She works with Ann Pistell in the Solid Waste Program developing initiatives to help Maine citizens reduce the toxicity of household waste and to encourage the safe handling and recycling of household products that contain hazardous materials. She can be reached at carole.a.cifrino@maine.gov.
