California's electronics waste recycling program is gaining ground

• California's pioneering electronic-waste recycling law was as confusing for the big recycling operators as it was for collectors and consumers when it went into force at the beginning of the year.
• ``I'm not sure I agree with the need for all the regulations, but we're managing within the system and it's working for us,'' said Steve Skurnac, president of San Jose-based Noranda Recycling, a subsidiary of a Canadian mining company that operates a giant e-waste crunching machine in Roseville.
• As many as three e-waste bills have been introduced in Congress this term, one similar to California's approach of using retail fees to finance recycling and two others proposing tax incentives to persuade producers to recycle their products.
• Responding to the rising public interest, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce's subcommittee on Environment and Hazardous Materials has scheduled a hearing on e-waste Wednesday.
• The idea behind the CRT recycling law was that if the infrastructure for collecting fees and paying for the recycling of these items worked, the program could be expanded in the future to cover circuit boards and other kinds of electronic trash.
• That money goes to the Board of Equalization, which passes it on to the California Integrated Waste Management Board, the agency that manages the program and pays recyclers.
• The big challenge in implementing the e-waste law has been gathering the documentation needed to prove that material collected for recycling originated within the state of California, recyclers say.
• ``Companies who collect the monitors are supposed to get the names and address of the people or the business where they got them,'' said William McGeever, vice president for operations at San Jose-based Asset Services & Liquidation (ASL).