AUSTIN, Texas - Nearly 150,000 tons of old televisions, computers, phones and other electronics are disposed of every year in Texas. Keeping as much as possible out of landfills is the aim of legislation being debated at the State Capitol.
The bill, House Bill 3465, would require manufacturers to follow accredited standards or to use a certified electronics recycler. One such company is TechnoCycle in Houston and San Antonio. Its president, Mike Buckels, said electronic waste can be full of toxins.
"You can have some real problematic or hazardous materials inside of those electronics," he said. "You can have cadmium or, potentially, beryllium. You can have mercury and phosphorus, and so certified electronic recyclers will have developed programs that will ensure that they mitigate the risk or eliminate the risk."
When electronics are not properly disposed of and end up in landfills, those toxic substances can leach into the ground and water and pose a threat to public health.
Another potential health threat is to those workers who process the materials, so Buckels said certified e-waste recyclers also are required to have systems in place for their safety.
"Make sure that all their people have protective equipment, gloves, masks, glasses ... just whatever is necessary to make sure that their employees are protected from any environmental or health and safety issues," he said.
While the environmental threat from the heavy metals and toxins is the first concern, Buckels noted that a lot of old electronics also contain confidential data.
"Imagine the information that's on each of our personal phones, it's on our laptops, our computers at home," he said. "So there are some problems with the disposal of electronics. And again, a certified electronics recycler is going to have the data side of it as well, making sure those data risks are eliminated as well."
More information on local programs is online at texasrecyclescomputers.org. The text of HB 3465 is at legis.state.tx.us.
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Tech giant Microsoft has responded to concerns about the environmental impact of discontinuing support for Windows 10 by offering extended security updates.
The move is expected to help states such as North Carolina avoid a massive increase in electronic waste, as people ditch their old PCs for newer models.
The decision comes in response to more than 20,000 petition signatures collected by the Public Interest Research Group.
Lucas Gutterman, director of PIRG's "Designed to Last" campaign, said when support for Windows 10 is set to end in 2025, up to 400 million devices could face obsolescence.
"And that means people either need to dispose of those PCs and replace them and buy a new one," he said, "or they'll be left unsecured against potential attacks from folks that are exploiting that older operating system."
Gutterman said the extended security update program, set to begin in 2025, will come with additional costs for individuals, schools and businesses.
It's estimated that about 50,000 tons of computer equiment is already discarded in North Carolina each year, along with more than 30,000 tons of television sets.
Gutterman pointed out that this move by Microsoft represents a step in the right direction to reduce the environmental impact of outdated technology. However, he said he believes further measures should be taken to address the issue, such as automatically extending support.
"It's not just Microsoft. It's not just Google. It's not just Apple," he stressed. "The entire industry really needs to have things that are designed to last, and it does seem like they are listening to folks that stand together and ask them to do that."
According to PIRG, the manufacturing of these devices has already resulted in about 46 million tons of climate pollution, or the equivalent of adding nine million cars on the road for a year.
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This Fourth of July, ocean conservation groups want Americans to declare their independence from single-use plastics.
A new report, "Charting a Course to Plastic-Free Beaches," names the five biggest culprits polluting beaches and waterways: cigarette butts, plus plastic foam food ware, bags, straws and stirrers, and utensils.
Anja Brandon, associate director of U.S. plastics policy for the Ocean Conservancy, said non-recyclable plastic items break down in the water and do great harm to wildlife.
"We're calling for bans to eliminate or significantly reduce these five items," Brandon explained. "Eliminating these five items, in the U.S. alone, would cut 1.4 million tons of plastics each year."
The report advised people to bring reusable water bottles, plates, cups and cutlery to their barbecues, and to consider joining a nearby cleanup event. One year ago, California lawmakers passed Senate Bill 54, which requires all packaging in the state to be recyclable or compostable by 2032.
Brandon pointed out the landmark California law jumpstarts the move toward a "circular" economy, where items are designed to be reused or recycled, so they do not end up in a landfill.
"SB 54 also requires that producers of all single-use materials help take responsibility for their items, and help pay for the recycling or composting of those items," Brandon outlined. "Also, the bill requires that plastics meet an incredibly high recycling rate of 65%."
You can find more ways to avoid single-use plastics on the website plasticfreeJuly.org.
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The U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund is urging Google to allow Chromebook owners a right to repair the devices and extend their life span, reducing e-waste and saving money for schools in Georgia and across the country.
With 31.8 million Chromebooks sold in 2020, many of which were distributed to schools during the pandemic, many of the devices are approaching expiration and will soon stop receiving updates.
Lucas Gutterman, Designed to Last campaign director for the group, said to prevent the loss of working devices, they are calling on Google to double the life expectancy of Chromebooks, an effort which could save Georgia schools millions of dollars.
"Our report actually found that doubling the life of Chromebook from four to eight years could save schools in Georgia $63 million and cut carbon emission equivalent to taking 32,000 cars off the road a year," Gutterman explained.
Gutterman warned as operating system expiration dates approach, Chromebooks will become a dangerous form of e-waste. Studies have shown e-waste accounts for more than 70% of toxic material in our waste stream, causing cancer, fertility problems, developmental delays and other health risks.
According to a survey conducted last year by the National Consortium for School Networking in 2022, many schools have implemented a one-to-one program, providing each student with their own device.
However, Gutterman highlighted the potential loss of security access for the laptops could result in schools losing access to critical sites.
"Chromebooks have an expiration date after that date has passed," Gutterman pointed out. "Even though the laptop might be working perfectly fine, you can't access state testing websites, other secure websites and, for a lot of schools, that laptop is not really going to meet their needs."
In addition to saving schools money, the report estimated across the 48.1 million K-12 public school students in the U.S., doubling the life span of Chromebooks could result in $1.8 billion dollars in savings for taxpayers, assuming no additional maintenance costs.
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