MD Adopts Computer Recycling Fee

[Railroad]

The following is an excerpt of a Post article that can be found in the YAHOO! news pages:

Maryland Adopts Computer-Recycling Fee

By Dina ElBoghdady, Washington Post Staff Writer


Wed Jun 1, 1:00 AM ET

The law, signed last month by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R), affects only makers of desktop and laptop computers, including monitors, but it hints at expanding to include television sets in the near future.

Some of the country's largest computer makers helped shape the legislation and gave it the final nod, though many did so grudgingly. At least one of them, Hewlett-Packard Co., which has 20 percent of the U.S. market, has not decided if it will pass the cost on to consumers.

Don't know how I feel about this yet. My first reaction was anger at the state for imposing yet another money-collecting scheme. Recognizing that there's probably a lot more to this than I detected at first blush, I'm withholding any further opinion.

 

[ylexot]

Link? What you posted doesn't really provide any information.

 

[ylexot]

Nevermind. Found it myself.

 

[janey83]

:shrug: Just take them apart and use the parts to upgrade other computers....or pull an office space and take it to an open field and beat the #$(*#$ out of it. Which....is what I plan to do sometime next year with my 4-yr old computer.

 

[ylexot]

My first thought is that a collection plan would be far more effective. Unlike most recycling, electronics recycling can actually generate revenue. That's why companies like Dell and HP offer recycling (they don't do it to be environmentally friendly).

And, like Janey mentioned, some stuff can easily be reused.

Check out Dell's recycling program.

 

[Makavide]

donate it

Or you can just donate your used computer to Southern Maryland Applied Research and Technology Consortium, Inc. , who will then repair/rebuild and turn around and send them to schools, libraries and such

 

[Ken King]

Having just read the bill that was signed into law (HB575) I see this as not a problem for the end user (AKA us), though the manufacturers will probably incorporate the recovery expenses for the products return back to the consumer as part of the purchase price.

 

[Oz]

Not a problem for the end user? Not a problem for Dell? I dunno... Any time it costs more to do business in Maryland, we citizens pay more for the same thing we can go to Virginia, Delaware or Pennsylvania and buy cheaper.

What about the smaller local companies (like the one who sponsors this forum) who now have to pay this fee? The local consumers and businesses they serve have just had a price increase!

Congratulations! Our computers now cost more thanks to the folks in Annapolis who voted for this!

 

[Ken King]

Not a problem for the end user? Not a problem for Dell? I dunno... Any time it costs more to do business in Maryland, we citizens pay more for the same thing we can go to Virginia, Delaware or Pennsylvania and buy cheaper.

What about the smaller local companies (like the one who sponsors this forum) who now have to pay this fee? The local consumers and businesses they serve have just had a price increase!

Congratulations! Our computers now cost more thanks to the folks in Annapolis who voted for this!

It passed 132 - 0 in the House and 46 - 1 in the Senate. Probably easier to try to locate the sole standout.

 

[Oz]

It passed 132 - 0 in the House and 46 - 1 in the Senate. Probably easier to try to locate the sole standout.

I'm guessing that Dyson probably wasn't the sole renegade in the Senate!

 

[Voter2002]

Just remember Maryland's state motto: If you can dream it, we can tax it!

 

[Bruzilla]

I saw the truncated title of this string, "MD Adopts Computer Recycling" and I thought what a great idea. Have a program for recycling computers. But then I read on and saw that I should have known better. More taxes!

By the way... unless you have a computer that's less than two years old, don't waste your time, and that of others, donating it to a school or church. I was Ryken HS talking to them about network admin issues a couple of years ago, and they showed me the room of donated computers they have. It was a storage room with about 100 or so old computers, 8088, 286, 386, 486, PI/II, etc., that had been donated and dumped in the room. The schools don't want your old PI/II machine anymore than you do.