Frustrated with delays in Sacramento, Bay Area officials said Thursday they planned to take matters into their own hands to regulate the region’s growing pile of electronic trash.
    A San Jose councilwoman and a San Francisco supervisor said they would propose local initiatives aimed at controlling electronic waste if the California law-making body fails to act on two bills stalled in the Assembly. They are among a growing number of California cities and counties that have expressed the same intention.
    Environmentalists and local governments are increasingly concerned about the toxic hazard posed by old electronic devices and the cost of safely recycling those products. An estimated 6 million televisions and computers are stocked in California homes, and an additional 6,000 to 7,000 computers become outdated every day. The machines contain high levels of lead and other hazardous substances, and are already banned from California landfills (垃圾填埋场).
    Legislation by Senator Byron Sher would require consumers to pay a recycling fee of up to $30 on every new machine containing a cathode (阴极) ray tube. Used in almost all video monitors and televisions, those devices contain four to eight pounds of lead each. The fees would go toward setting up recycling programs, providing grants to non-profit agencies that reuse the tubes and rewarding manufacturers that encourage recycling.
    A separate bill by Los Angeles-area Senator Gloria Romero would require high-tech manufacturers to develop programs to recycle so-called e-waste.
    If passed, the measures would put California at the forefront of national efforts to manage the refuse of the electronic age.
    But high-tech groups, including the Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group and the American Electronics Association, oppose the measures, arguing that fees of up to $30 will drive consumers to online, out-of-state retailers.
    “What really needs to occur is consumer education. Most consumers are unaware they’re not supposed to throw computers in the trash,” said Roxanne Gould, vice president of government relations for the electronics association.
    Computer recycling should be a local effort and part of residential waste collection programs, she added.
    Recycling electronic waste is a dangerous and specialized matter, and environmentalists maintain the state must support recycling efforts and ensure that the job isn’t contracted to unscrupulous (毫无顾忌的) junk dealers who send the toxic parts overseas.
    “The graveyard of the high-tech revolution is ending up in rural China,” said Ted Smith, director of the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition. His group is pushing for an amendment to Sher’s bill that would prevent the export of e-waste.