E-waste: Electronic paperweight crisis?

The Washington Times ^ | 7-12-05 | Dana Joel Gattuso

[JZelle]

Supposedly, we face a major tech-trash "crisis." Too many Americans, according to a handful of in Congress, use their old home computers and other outmoded electronics as giant paperweights, storing them in attics, garages, and basements and "taking up space in homes and businesses." The "inappropriate storage of these things is not an option," said Rep. Mike Thompson, California Democrat, at a recent press conference. In the face of this calamity, he and three colleagues announced a new "working group" to educate Congress, apparently in the dark on the dangers of so called "e-waste" stored in homes or buried in landfills. Mr. Thompson, along with Reps. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, California Republican, Louise Slaughter New York Democrat, and Mary Bono, California Republican, report Congress needs a national solution to address the uncontrollable increase of used electronics. Furthermore, they claim human health and the environment are threatened by "large amounts of documented hazardous materials" contained in e-waste, and that the waste will continue to be a threat until it is recycled. Unfortunately, our legislators are victims of widespread misinformation spread largely by eco-activist groups who claim electronic waste reflects the ills of a "throwaway" society and that recycling e-waste is our moral obligation to achieve "zero waste tolerance." One can only hope a working group to study the issue will help these members of Congress get some facts straight. Consider:

[JZelle]

I put mine in a hole I dug in my backyard ;)

[AbeKrieger]

I am forming a pre-ocean natural reef in back of an old warehouse. Someday when all the ice caps melt, that place will be a rolling ocean, and my stack of electronics will provide a place for some sort of shellfish to lay their eggs or soemthing.

Beisdes there are no surveillance cameras there.

[azcap]

I guess the War on Terror has been won, the budget balanced, the debt paid off, China pacified, the tax code tamed, illegal immigration halted and crime eliminated. I'm glad Congress can get on to pressing issues like E-Waste

[ARCADIA]

Just come up with something stupid and someone in Congress will give you money to go away.

[Nowhere Man]

I'm dead, you ought to see my basement, 1970's vintage stereo equipment and a 1970 Zenith color TV as well an an old Heathkit HW-101 HF Transceiver. I'm doomed and it is all Bush's fault. /sarcasm>

[Redcloak]

Don't laugh. Thanks to these idiotic Democrats, every Californian now pays a "disposal fee" whenever they buy electronics; i.e. yet another tax.

[anonsquared]

"human health and the environment are threatened by large amounts of documented hazardous materials"

Couldn't this also be said of the budget that they pass every year?

[AbeKrieger]

"human health and the environment are threatened by large amounts of documented hazardous materials"

I offer that 8% of all greenhouse gases are emitted by Ted Kennedy personally.

[The Brush]

I put mine in a hole I dug in my backyard

I've been digging holes for my spent nuclear fuel rods.

[meowmeow]

I think we now have 4 monitors in the attic and there's an old hard drive on the floor behind my reading chair for some reason (I just dust around it).

Old lap tops are fun though - we take turns chucking them across the yard. Then I find little electronic doo-dads in my flower garden for weeks afterwards.

[JZelle]

lol!

[AbeKrieger]

Have you NEVER read the Constitution?