Maine a model of e-waste disposal

[jpak]

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/state/070323recycle.html

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. - This is the end of the line for most of Maine's old TVs and computer monitors.

It's a quick death. It only takes minutes for a crew of workers with screwdrivers and hammers to dismantle each unit and sort out the glass, copper, circuit boards, plastic and other "commodities" for the recycling market.

And it's a cleaner one. The hazardous ingredients -- lead, cadmium and mercury -- are recycled, too, instead of getting vaporized in incinerators or buried in landfills.

How to recycle so-called e-waste is a continuously expanding national problem, with an estimated 50 million computers alone getting discarded each year in the United States. Incinerating or burying the American cast-offs are not the only risky disposal solutions. Tons of the waste are simply piled up each year in places such as China or India, where locals are paid low wages to remove copper and other metals.

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