New York City Mayor Bloomberg signed the e-waste recycling bill today, the first city in the nation to establish an e-waste recycling program. The new law will require electronics manufacturers (covering computers, monitors and TVs) to create a collection program for their products from City consumers. The law also bans e-waste from disposal into the City's solid waste stream.

Read the press release

What You Can Do

• Learn more about California's e-waste policy.

New York City Council Member Bill de Blasio, who has introduced a motion to ban polystyrene city-wide, has started a pilot project that will swtich some NYC schools from polystyrene trays to compostable bagasse trays, a material produced from the waste produced from sugar cane production. Swell Chan of the New York Times reports that the New York City Public School System goes through 153 million polystyrene trays annually.

Read the Complete Article>>

Many school districts in Southern California also use disposable foam trays.

CAW and Polystyrene:

• Learn More about Polystyrene

The New York City Council yesterday recalled the e-waste legislation they passed last month and has replaced it with two new bills. The change comes after Mayor Bloomberg threatened to veto the first bill. The two bills split up the first bill with one requiring electronics manufacturers to collect and recycling their used and unwanted products and the other focusing on mandatory collection goals to be met. The latter was what the Mayor was mostly opposed to that led to the splitting of the original bill. So instead of having the entire bill be vetoed, the City Council split up the bill and still hopes to be the first city in the country with an e-waste recycling bill.

Read a New York Times article.

What You Can Do

• Learn more about California's e-waste legislation.
• Find a place to recycling your unwanted electronics.

Massachusetts State Senator Brian Joyce has introduced a bill that would phase in a 15 cent per bag fee in the Commonwealth by 2014.

Read an AP Article>>

Read a Boston Herald Article>>

See the Bill>>

A similar approach in Ireland has decreased plastic bag usage by over 90%. Plastic bags are one of the most visible and dangerous components of marine debris pollution.

CAW and Bag Fees:

• CAW is sponsoring AB 2058 (Levine), which would require retailers to charge a fee for plastic bags if certain reduction benchmarks are not met.