Experts estimate that U.S. businesses and consumers dumped more than 150 million tons of electronics equipment in 2004. To reduce such large-scale dumping and its environmental consequences, some lawmakers say the federal government should provide financial incentives for recycling such waste, perhaps even create a mandatory national electronics recycling program.

That could happen if Congress passes a bill that Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Jim Talent (R-Mo.) introduced in March. The Electronic Waste Recycling Promotion and Consumer Protection Act would require federal executive agencies to remanufacture or recycle all display screens and system units that they buy and would offer tax credits to consumers and companies that do the same.

The bill would also direct the Environmental Protection Agency to calculate the costs and benefits of creating a national e-waste recycling program. Such a program would impose new regulations and would likely face opposition from the solid waste industry and its supporters.

A variety of programs exist now for making the federal government a better environmental citizen through electronics recycling, or e-cycling, but most of those programs are piecemeal and voluntary.

Through public awareness campaigns, for example, EPA officials have made some progress toward improving agencies' recycling efforts. But for the federal government to substantially reduce its electronics waste, as the Wyden-Talent bill proposes, agencies may need to make significant new expenditures. The Defense Department and General Services Administration, which profit from their electronics waste, are exceptions.

The federal government disposes of 10,000 computers a week, in addition to fax machines, printers, copiers, cell phones and handheld devices. Some of this electronics equipment winds up in landfills or overseas, where environmental standards are generally lower. Experts say that the mishandling of electronics waste releases toxic chemicals such as lead, mercury, chromium, cadmium and beryllium into the environment.

Concern about costs

Many agency officials view the upfront costs of recycling as a burden. Recycling involves additional expenditures for removing data from hard drives, transporting and inspecting equipment, and repackaging useful parts.

Federal agencies pay for e-cycling out of their existing budgets through a variety of specialized contracting programs, including one that just became available. Officials may be able to offset their recycling costs through a share-in-savings program in which agencies would share a portion of the proceeds of recycling with the contractor hired to dispose of the e-waste.