Electronic Recycling - Doing It Right ?

Like it or not, the modern society could not exist without electronics.   They are a critical aspect in government, business and can be found in nearly every home in developed nations (and their use grows every day in the rest of the world).   But with technology growing and innovating faster each year, electronic devices do not have a long life.   This has resulted in a vast and fast-growing supply of e-waste -- electronics that are outdated or broken.

At first, this e-waste was just dumped into landfills (and that still happens far too often).   But it has been learned that the e-waste contains many items that are dangerous to both humans and the environment -- things like mercury, americium, sulphur, cadmium, PCBs, beryllium, lead, and polyvinyl chloride.   It is believed that 70% of heavy metals in U.S. landfills has come from discarded electronics.

When the dangers became known, the electronics companies at first just shipped this waste to third-world countries for disposal or recycling.   But the lack of environmental and work safety laws just meant the danger was transferred these countries and their inhabitants.   Currently, electronics companies are supposed to recycle the elements contained in their old products in a safe way.   This poses questions like: are they doing it right, and which companies are the best at safely recycling their old products?

The Electronics Takeback Coalition has decided to answer those questions for consumers.   They have issued a report card for electronics companies in four areas (computers, televisions, printers, and game consoles), giving each company a grade ranging from A to F (just like school report cards).   They used the following criteria to determine the grades:

* How extensive are the company takeback programs?
* Are the products recycled responsibly?
* What are the companies doing to promote reuse and closed loop recycling?
* What are company positions on government recycling policies?
* How transparent are companies in reporting recycling details?

Here are the report cards in the four electronic areas (note that no company in any area earned an A):

COMPUTERS
Dell (B)
Asus (B-)
Apple (C+)
HP (C-)
Toshiba (C-)
Acer (D)
Lenovo (D-)

TELEVISIONS
Samsung (B-)
LG (C+)
Best Buy (C+)
Wal-Mart (C+)
Sharp (C)
Mitsubishi (D+)
Panasonic (D+)
Vizio (D)
Sony (D)
Funai (F)
Hitachi (F)
JVC (F)
Philips (F)
Sanyo (F)
Target (F)
RCA/Thomson (F)

PRINTERS
HP (C-)
Brother (F)
Epson (F)
Lexmark (F)
Kodak (F)
Canon (F)

GAME CONSOLES
Sony (D)
Microsoft (D-)
Nintendo (D-)