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By Kumar Venkat, San Francisco Chronicle

CALIFORNIA, USA, 16 September 2002 -- Information technology has a dark side rarely visible to users or even to many of us who help develop the products: The computers and monitors that you and I use contain toxins (such as lead, cadmium, mercury and brominated flame retardants) that can cause severe health hazards to humans and animals, ranging from reproductive harm to nervous system damage, when released into the environment.

Computers and other electronic appliances become obsolete much faster than cars or refrigerators, and soon find their way into our waste stream. This "e- waste" is already estimated to account for more than 5 percent of municipal solid waste and is growing fast. Disposing of e-waste through landfilling, incineration or improper recycling can pollute the soil, water or air. Only a fraction of e-waste is diverted to recycling, but the Basel Action Network reported earlier this year that some recyclers have been exporting this toxic waste to Asian countries.

The problem is compounded by the fact that the United States is the largest producer of e-waste, but we don't have a national policy on how to deal with it. The United States also has no ban on exporting hazardous waste, unlike many other developed countries.

Things will only get worse in the near future, when each new computer purchased makes an older computer obsolete. Electronic appliances are not built for recycling today. Recycling companies have tried to cope, using a combination of manual and automated processes to take apart these machines and recover valuable materials, such as metals and pure glass. But recycling technologies are unlikely to satisfactorily remove hazardous substances and reduce the volume of unusable waste without upstream help from hardware manufacturers.

The key to reducing e-waste is to design products that are easy to upgrade, remanufacture and recycle, so that product life cycles are extended, modular components are reused in new products and, as a last resort, materials are easily separated for recycling. This is really a design problem that requires a completely new way of thinking about how to build electronic appliances. It is unlikely to happen unless manufacturers are responsible for the final fate of their products.

California's Legislature has taken an important, but modest, first step by passing SB1523 against much opposition from the high-tech industry. If Gov. Gray Davis signs it, the bill would ban landfilling or exporting cathode ray tubes from obsolete computer monitors and televisions (which contain significant amounts of lead), and would impose a $10 recycling fee on new CRTs beginning in 2004. But the bill doesn't address other electronic devices, nor does it require manufacturers to take back their products.

The European Union is working with its member states on a broad directive that includes product take-back and specific recycling goals for all types of electronic products. Japan already has a national law on recycling home appliances.

The United States similarly needs a comprehensive e-waste law at the national level that clearly assigns end-of-life responsibility to product manufacturers, sets recycling targets and regulates safe disposal of used appliances. With these ground rules phased in over several years, the industry would have the right incentives to reduce the volume of solid waste and rapidly develop alternatives to the toxins used in manufacturing. This could well spawn a whole new generation of technologies and lead to environmentally sustainable electronics. There would be plenty of room to be creative with technologies and business models. If manufacturers must eventually take back their products, perhaps it would make sense for them to own the products and sell only computing, communications and entertainment services to consumers. Such a service model is already common in the photocopier business. Service providers might also find it cheaper to incrementally upgrade their installed appliances -- such as replacing certain components -- rather than make all the machines obsolete every couple of years.

Cleaning up e-waste could turn into a tremendous business opportunity for the high-tech industry. As worldwide usage of electronic appliances rapidly grows, it is essential that the e-waste problem be solved now while it is still manageable. The high-tech industry in the United States should lead the way with innovations and government should step in with regulations defining the ground rules.

EXPRESS YOURSELF

SB1523 would ban landfilling or exporting used cathode ray tubes from computer monitors and televisions (which contain significant amounts of lead), and would impose a $10 recycling fee on new CRTs beginning in 2004. The fate of the bill now lies with Gov. Gray Davis. To let him know where you stand, contact: -- Address: Office of the Governor First Floor, State Capitol Sacramento, Calif. 95814 -- Phone: (916) 445-2841 -- E-mail: governor@governor.ca.gov -- Fax: (916) 445-4633

Kumar Venkat, a Cupertino-based consultant who has worked in the high-tech industry for 18 years, writes frequently about the social impacts of technology.