Governor Douglas will the the recently passed e-waste bill into law at the Chittenden Solid Waste District's Williston Drop-Off Center on Redmond Road. The signing is scheduled for 3 pm.
Attendees at this event will include legislators who worked on the bill, Agency of Natural Resources Secretary Jonathon Wood, CSWD staff and board members, VPIRG, and other interested parties. This event coincides with Earth Day week.
About 1.5 million tons of electronics are collected for recycling each year in Vermont. Currently, municipalities shoulder the burden of providing facilities and moving these mountains of electronics. The bill (S.77) would require manufacturers to take on that burden and provide free and convenient recycling of electronic waste to residents, charities, schools, and small businesses in the state. The bill received tri-partisan support in the House and Senate, now awaits a stroke of the pen by Governor Douglas to become law.Vermont is the 21st state to pass this type of legislation for electronic waste. Europe, Canada and Asia also have producer responsibility laws for electronics as well as other products.In addition to requiring that manufacturers play a role in dealing with their own products at disposal time, producer responsibility programs also provide powerful incentives for manufacturers to design their electronics to last longer and to exclude the toxic materials that make recycling so difficult and expensive. The popular LCD TV is perhaps the "poster child" for how electronics are not designed with recycling in mind, because of both material selection and physical design. Inside a typical 40-inch LCD flat panel TV, there are 22 thin, fragile lamps containing mercury, which light the TV screen. The entire TV must be disassembled to get access to these bulbs, making replacing and harvesting them for recycling difficult and expensive. (Source: Electronics Takeback Coalition)"In Vermont, municipalities, solid waste districts, and taxpayers bear the financial burden of grappling with e-waste", said Jen Holliday, Environmental and Safety Compliance Manager for Chittenden Solid Waste District, and Chair of the Vermont Product Stewardship Council. "We have no control over how these products are designed, manufactured, marketed and sold, but ultimately it is local government that is left with trying to capture and recycle these products when they are being discarded. This legislation changes that model and provides the consumer with a convenient and consistent state-wide collection system that we lack today."
Source: CSWD. 4.19.2010
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Governor Douglas to sign e-waste bill in Williston today
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