Poison PCs/Toxic TVs: Report on Electronics Waste Reveals Billion Dollar Cost to Taxpayers

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For Immediate Release

Poison PCs/Toxic TVs: Report on Electronics Waste Reveals Billion Dollar Cost to Taxpayers

San Jose City Councilmember Chavez Responds with Call for State Action to Protect San Jose's Environment and Budget.

SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, Jun. 19 -/E-Wire/-- San Jose City Council member Cindy Chavez will introduce a resolution before the San Jose City Council calling for immediate state action to regulate computer wastes.

"Local taxpayers are not in a position to shoulder the staggering costs of cleaning up hazardous wastes found in personal computers and monitors. We need a collaborative effort involving local and state government, high-tech, and other stakeholders." said Chavez.

A recent announcement by the California Department of Toxics and Substance Control which clarified that it is illegal to dispose of televisions and computer monitors in municipal landfills has sent cities throughout the state scrambling to find alternative methods of collecting and recycling computer and electronic waste. "The high-tech industry, environmentalists and government must work together to find solutions to the imminent environmental crisis caused by e-waste. Failing to do so threatens our natural resources and our local economy," warned Chavez.

The action accompanies the release of a new report, Poison PCs and Toxic TVs: The Biggest Environmental Crisis You Never Heard Of. (A pdf copy of the report can be found at http://www.svtc.org/)

The report details the growing piles of electronic waste in the US, the toxics contained in computers and monitors, the hazards of improper disposal and estimates a cost to California taxpayers of almost $1 billion for handling e-wastes that consumers and businesses will throw away.

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WHEN: Tuesday, June 19, 11:30 AM; WHERE: San Jose City Hall, 801 N. First Street; WHO: City Council Members: Cindy Chavez, Chuck Reed, and Ted Smith, Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition; PHOTO OP: Obsolete electronic waste, including materials designated as hazardous waste by the State Department of Toxics Control;

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"We're sitting on top of a gigantic e-wasteberg , and in order to find solutions, the manufacturers of computers must take life-cycle responsibility for their products," said Ted Smith, Executive Director of Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, one of the lead authors of the new report. "They need to re-design their products to phase out the toxic materials and make computers and monitors recyclable. They should take the lead on recycling programs, not the taxpayer."

"Silicon Valley is the epicenter of the high-tech revolution," said Smith. Our communities have borne the environmental costs and toxic legacy of high-tech production. Taxpayers must not now be burdened with the costs of disposing of e-waste."

The report, Poison PCs and Toxic TVs is being released this week in San Jose, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento, where local elected leaders are also introducing resolutions to protect their communities against the costs of cleaning up toxic computers.

The report found that: * More than 6,000 computers become obsolete in California every day. They are either tossed out with the trash or stored. Consumers have, on average, 2 to 3 obsolete computers in their garages, closets or storage spaces. US government researchers estimate that three-quarters of all computers ever sold in the United States remain stockpiled, awaiting disposal.

* According to EPA, in 1997, more than 3.2 million tons of e-waste ended up in US landfills. European studies estimate that the volume of electronic waste is rising by 3% to 5% per year, almost three times faster than the municipal waste stream. Today, e-waste could represent as much as 5% of municipal solid waste disposal. That's more than beverage containers, more than disposable diapers, and about the same level as all plastic packaging.

* A March 21, 2001 letter from the California Department of Toxic Substances Control affirming that the cathode ray tubes (CRT's) in computer monitors and television sets are hazardous waste and therefore banned from landfills. Each computer or television display contains an average of 4 to 8 pounds of lead. The 315 million computers that will become obsolete between 1997 and 2004 contain a total of more than 1.2 billion pounds of lead.

* The infrastructure for properly handling electronic waste either for recycling or disposal is grossly inadequate and needs immediate improvement and expansion. The National Safety Council reported in 1999 that only 11% of discarded computers were recycled, compared with 28% of overall municipal solid waste. In California, estimates of computer recycling range from 5% to 15%, compared to a 42% rate for overall solid waste and 70% rate for major appliances like refrigerators, washing machines, and dryers.

* Properly managing just one component of electronic wasteobsolete computer monitors and television setscarries a potential price tag of $500 million to over one billion dollars over the next 5 years in California alone.

Later this week, at the National Electronics Product Stewardship Initiative meeting in San Francisco, California Integrated Waste Management Board Member, Mike Paparian, and representatives from eleven other states including Massachusetts, Minnesota and Florida will meet with computer manufacturers to discuss how to solve the crisis and who will pay the high cost of keeping toxic computer and electronic waste out of the municipal waste stream.

The report was produced by Californians Against Waste, a statewide lobbying group on recycling issues; Materials for the Future Foundation, working with communities on economic development through recycling; the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, an environmental justice group raising issues regarding the high tech industry; and Green Capitol, an environmental group seeking to protect taxpayers from industry and government waste.

Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition

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