Mar 2 - House Bill To Spur New Gold Rush?
The House Committee on Science and Technology plans to introduce a bill, the Electronic Waste Research & Development Act of 2009, to create a national e-waste law. The bill would support research for new ways of recycling electronic waste, with the intention of helping companies extract value from e-waste and reduce the environmental impact of lead, mercury and other toxins. According to the U.S. EPA,only about 11 % of our e-waste is recycled. Currently, there are 17 states, including California, that have e-waste law in place, and there are 3 states with e-waste legislative bills introduced this year.
According to Committee chairman Bart Gordon (D-Tenn), recycling e-waste is beneficial to businesses:
"It contains valuable materials, such as gold, silver, and copper. Scrap electronics are a richer source of these precious metals than the minerals we mine out of the ground. No matter how you slice it, it just doesn’t make sense to put gold in a dump."
Learn more about California's Existing E-waste Recycling Law.