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Southeast Kansas Recycling, Inc. has asked for a loan of $85,700 to institute household hazardous waste and electronic waste disposal programs.

An environmental group's outcry on Thursday over removal of electronic waste from a Monroeville warehouse by a controversial recycler could wind up costing warehouse owner Levin Furniture - which just wants to see it disposed of properly.

The Consumer Electronics Show is the greenest it has ever been so far, writes Maura Judkis of Fresh Greens. Highlights from the show: Toshiba unveiled the Super Charge Battery, which is touted as a longer-lasting battery with a target recharge time of 90 percent in just 10 minutes. The company also said it has teamed up with Sharp and Panasonic to create the Electronic Manufacturers Recycling Management Company , which will set up 280 recycling points across all 50 states. The eventual goal is to have a network of over 800 recycling points across the country, making it much easier for businesses and consumers to dispose of electronic waste, writes vnunet.com

Richland, Wash-- If you have an old T.V. or computer to get rid of think, before you put it in your garbage. It's not illegal for households to put electronics in their trash, but it could be dangerous for ground water around landfills. All businesses are required to E-Cycle their electronics. If you take your electronics to the Richland Landfill they will dispose them for free. They have already shipped six truck loads so far.

Do you have an old TV, laptop or monitor? Now you can easily recycle it for free, thanks to a new state law. The E-Cycle Washington program requires manufacturers to provide recycling services for TVs, desktop computers, laptop computers and monitors at no cost to residents, nonprofits, small businesses, schools and local governments. "The law puts the responsibility of end-of-life disposal costs on the manufacturer, rather than the resident or local government. This is important because recycling is a very expensive process," said Terri Thomas, education and outreach specialist for Thurston County Solid Waste. Before, residents either had to rely on Thurston County's twice-a-year Community Recycle Days or seek out other options, usually at their own expense, Thomas said. Perhaps that's why electronics are the fastest-growing waste stream, she said.

Oregon e-Cycles has a great website up for consumers to help guide them through the whys and hows of e-cycling. If you live in the area, simply type in your zip code and you're given a listing of local collection points. Oregon has another item that will launch next New Year's Day: on January 1, 2010, disposal of computers, monitors and TVs will be banned . Also launching on this New Years Day was Washington's new program letting people drop off certain e-waste items for free. They too have a search database for finding a local drop-off point , as well as a call-in hotline.

E-waste: search through any basement, attic or garage in America and you'll likely find some. Old computers and cell phones, your ancient TV that shows only a scratchy black-and-white picture, that broken printer. These are all examples of electronic waste, also known as e-waste - a booming facet of America's waste stream. Americans generate between 5 and 7 million tons of e-waste each year - and the amount is growing three times faster than other types of municipal waste, according to the Northeast Waste Management Officials Association. The association is a nonprofit interstate group of New England states - including New Hampshire - that coordinates waste and pollution prevention programs. Though e-waste itself isn't a new phenomenon, only within about the last eight years have states tried to grapple with how to properly dispose of electronics that contain chemicals harmful to the environment when simply tossed in a landfill or burned in an incinerator. New Hampshire is one of 18 states in the country to have a law regulating e-waste, and the law may soon get a little stricter.

NBC25 NEWS - Ever wonder what to do with an old cell phone or outdated computer? There are better options than the trash. Computers, printers, and cell phones can all be saved from the landfill, but more often than not, outdated and unwanted electronics end up in the trash. "90 percent of all electronics, they are not disposed of properly, so you can see that poses a huge environmental problem," said Collin Marshall with Best Buy.

New e-waste recycling laws passed in Oregon and Washington take effect on New Year's Day, requiring electronics manufacturers to recycled old hardware, and promising to spur the growth of responsible e-waste disposal. The laws, which passed in mid-2007 in Oregon and in 2006 in Washington, require manufacturers to pay for the recycling of their electronics products sold in each state, and is expected to collect as much as 12 million pounds of electronics in Oregon and about 25 million in Washington in the first year alone. The new laws are among the toughest in the country, and highlight what e-waste and public health advocates say is the best solution to the country's -- and the planet's -- enormous e-waste problem. As we found in researching electronic waste in 2008's State of Green Business report, the mountain of potentially valuable (and often toxic) electronic waste is growing substantially faster than companies and governments are able to collect and recycle it. In the wake of a harshly critical government report and an eye-opening exposé on television's 60 Minutes newsmagazine, e-waste has spent a lot of time in the limelight this year. And the new laws promise to help turn the tide from what activist groups have called "anarchy" in the e-waste takeback market.

The program is operated by the Washington Materials Management and Financing Authority, a quasi-governmental agency created by the legislation to work with the 200 or so manufacturers that sell computers and televisions in Washington state. In addition, the state Department of Ecology has certified four electronic waste processing firms - two in this state, one in Oregon and one in California - to disassemble the electronic equipment into separate materials for reuse or safe disposal, including glass, plastic, metal and toxic chemicals. The program is designed in part to stem the flow of electronic waste to Third World countries, where it is often dismantled crudely, threatening the environment, public health and the health of workers.

United Datatech Distributors (UDT) is a full service reclamation company and independent distributor of new and refurbished electronics, peripherals and components. UDT's extensive recycling and processing facilities provide the electronics industry with an all-encompassing solution to a wide variety of asset recovery and disposal needs.

A tool for recycling, reuse, networking, disposal and management of electronics waste How can ecyclingtools.com help my business? Extending the life of your electronics or donating equipment can save you money and conserve valuable resources. Properly recycling outdated electronics assures safe management of the hazardous components that are in many devices and permits the recovery and reuse of valuable materials to reduce the need for the extraction of new raw materials from the earth.

Product stewardship is a term used to describe a product-centered approach to environmental protection. It calls on those in the product life cycle -- from designers, manufacturers, retailers, consumers, waste managers and disposers -- to share responsibility for reducing the environmental impacts of products. Product stewardship activities have been taking place globally for over a decade. In the United States, this idea is gaining interest as more state and local governments cope with large, ever-changing, and complex waste streams.

RCN & Associates founded in 1992, originally started off as an IBM large system broker before expanding into the remarketing of IBM NZ's end of lease IT assets. Over the years RCN has also developed a large dealer network in New Zealand & overseas for buying & selling ex lease IT equipment. With RCN's high standards and efficient service we maintain a high quality of refurbished IT products throughout the industry. A few years ago RCN realised a need for an environmental e-waste disposal solution as the number of old and unwanted electronic equipment continued to increase. We developed a total solution for all electronic waste that sees 99% of all waste diverted from landfill.

"It's not much of a stretch to liken America's relationship with cells phones to a once sizzling romance that ends in goodbye. Fated love affairs typically begin with blind infatuation and fiery passion before reality sets in, cooling the embers enough to allow more guarded, sometimes less attractive aspects of the self to surface. Interest wanes until the love object is abandoned or replaced by an alluring new one. Americans relate to cell phones in much the same way. An old phone, with once novel features that drew fascination, is discarded with hardly a thought when an updated model makes it seem obsolete. That consumers replace cell phones about every two years makes this analogy seem less silly. A parallel can be drawn, too, between the innards of a cell phone and what is revealed when one person lets another peek inside: it's not all pretty. Some nasty materials lurk behind the bright shiny casing, making cell phone disposal a knotty environmental issue, analogous to ending, with minimal damages, a relationship gone sour. "

Attorneys for Levin Furniture gave EarthEcycle until Saturday to remove 2 million pounds of used electronic equipment from Levin's Monroeville warehouse, or the retailer will dispose of it.

Scientific American, 7/17/09, article by Larry Greenemeier. Most people assume that their trash ends up in a landfill somewhere far away (if they think about this at all). But growing concern over the environmental impact of waste-discarded electronics, in particular-has prompted a team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to take a high-tech approach to studying exactly what people are tossing out and where those items are ending up. The researchers, part of MIT's Senseable City Lab, have developed electronic tags that they're hoping as many as 3,000 volunteers in Seattle and New York City will affix to different items they throw away this summer as part of the Trash Track program. These tags will contact cell phone towers they pass as they flow through the trash stream to their final destinations, helping the researchers monitor the patterns and costs of urban disposal.

The Center for Environmental Health (CEH) Pollution Prevention Program works to leverage the buying power of large institutions in order to expand the market for "greener" electronic products that encourages the development of a sustainable, socially responsible production system in the electronics sector. Currently the Pollution Prevention Program is focused on the health care sector, partnering with the Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) campaign, to encourage SF Bay Area hospitals and national health care organizations to adopt more environmentally preferable purchasing, management and disposal practices for their electronic equipment. CEH also provides purchasing assistance to institutions from other sectors such as government and private industry, partnering with other coalitions such as the Electronics TakeBack Coalition (ETBC). CEH integrates the resources and expertise of ETBC in electronics with the experience and knowledge of HCWH in procurement in order to influence the purchasing decisions of large institutions in healthcare, government and academia towards more environmentally responsible electronics. Contact Sue Chiang, Pollution Prevention Program Director, 510.655.3900 x311, sue[at]cehca.org or Judy Levin, Pollution Prevention Program Coordinator, 510.655.3900 x316, judy[at]cehca.org with any questions.

This portion of the Federal Facilities Environmental Stewardship & Compliance Assistance Center (FedCenter) web site provides resources related to the electronics stewardship program area. This program area addresses the life-cycle management of electronics from procurement to disposal. Links, documents, and case studies are provided for the Federal Electronics Challenge (FEC), the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT), and Energy Star. Sections include: Regulations, Guidance, and Policy; Supporting Information and Tools; Lessons Learned; Training, Presentations, and Briefings; and Conferences and Events.

Trash Track relies on the development of smart tags, which will be attached to different types of garbage in order to track in real time each piece of waste as it traverses the city's sanitation system. The goal of the project is to reveal the disposal process of our everyday objects and waste, as well as to highlight potential inefficiencies in today's recycling and sanitation systems. The project will be exhibited at the Architectural League in New York City and in Seattle starting September 2009. MIT SENSEable City Lab project; this is the project web site.