In a letter dated 10 January, 2006, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control chose not to extend a temporary regulation that allowed households and others to throw electronics and batteries into their garbage cans.

How does this disposal ban effect the average household in California? After Feb. 8th, it will be illegal to throw into the garbage:

    * standard batteries
    * electronic devices
    * fluorescent lights
    * mercury thermostats

“Electronic Devices” sounds a lot like “anything with a plug.” This has big implications for county household hazardous waste management programs and others — only if people change their disposal patterns on a large scale. Without public information, however, it becomes just another one in a long list of regulations no one seems to know about.

Making It Work on the Ground
What is involved in wide spread adoption of a new practice, like disposal of consumer electronics? It is tempting to say “carrot and stick”, or “publicity”, or “influential people telling the story.” Actually, it is all of these and a few more. One thing that the solid waste industry has learned over time — the options have to be convenient, and people have to know about them.

The other side of the coin is systems design. Who will do the work? What is the carrying capacity of the systems? Where does it go? How much will it cost? It is a tired old fight to say “who is going to pay.” How do we make efficient systems, and reduce costs, while avoiding the race to the bottom? that is the question.

What News?
A News Search showed just two articles of any depth covering the topic to date, along with about 5 other minor articles, serving the California population of roughly 35 million people, and 13.5 million households ; one in San Diego and the other in the state’s capital of Sacramento. Curiously, the Sacramento article covered the fact that there appeared to be little public outcry on the topic.

Text from the DTSC Letter

A Quick Google News Search
San Diego Tribune
Sacramento Bee

This entry was posted on Friday, January 27th, 2006 at 1:21 am and is filed under Toxics, Government. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.