Computer Monitor Threats To Environment

My friend Karen Triggiani is a big greenie. She's very concerned about the environment, mother nature, all that.

She sends me this article:

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - It seemed a perfect symmetry: California, the world's high-tech capital, would lead the way in recycling the debris of our digital revolution.

But five years after the electronic-waste program was launched by the state government, it stands out not as a model of the green innovation for which California is famous, but as an example of good intentions gone awry.

By paying more than $320million to collect and recycle computer monitors and televisions, the state has built a magnet for fraud totaling tens of millions of dollars, including illegal material smuggled into the state.

"I don't think anybody could have forecast the greed that has poisoned the program," said Bob Erie, CEO of E-World Recyclers north of San Diego and once an enthusiastic supporter of the state effort.

None of the many states that followed California created a government-run e-waste recycling program; instead, they made industry responsible for its waste.