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Who Will Foot The E-Recycling Bill?
by Maureen Sirhal
Burdened by budget woes, cities and towns in Massachusetts want the high-tech community to pay for the recycling of computer and electronics products.
As the state prepares massive cuts in services and funding to its localities thanks to a projected $3 billion budget deficit next year, Massachusetts lawmakers are considering legislation to place the costs of disposing of cathode-ray tubes and other electronics products on manufacturers and their customers. The measure, H.B. 1533, has garnered the support of about 130 cities and towns representing nearly 50 percent of the state's population. Leaders of those localities signed a petition endorsing the bill, according to Rep. Mark Carron, the bill's Democratic author.
The measure would direct the state's Environmental Protection Department to establish a policy that makes manufacturers responsible for recycling their goods.
In 1997, Massachusetts become one of several states that banned the disposal in public landfills of televisions, computer monitors and other products that contain lead and other harmful contaminants. Violations of the law can result in hefty fines.
To date, localities have been managing programs to dispose of or recycle such electronic waste, but with the tight economy and lower tax revenues, cities and towns are struggling to cover the costs, which have run as high as $300,00 annually in larger cities. To try to curtail the costs of discarding the products, several lawmakers have been backing measures over the past few years to find ways to recycle tech equipment.
Carron sponsored a measure last year, but he said he backed away from the bill after a coalition of technology and electronics firms pleaded with the state to let private industry address the problem on a national level. "I took them at their word and allowed it to take a wait-and-see approach," Carron said. But after a year, " they have not come out with anything."
Representatives of the tech community told state lawmakers in a hearing last week that implementing Carron's bill would create a "bureaucratic nightmare." It asks manufacturers with no waste-management experience to come into Massachusetts to set up a recycling system," Heather Bowman, director of environmental affairs at the Electronic Industries Alliance, told the House Natural Resources and Agriculture Committee.
She noted that the bill could apply to cellular phones, hand-held electronic gadgets, calculators, cash registers, office products and copying machines, among other things.
"Confusion as to what products are covered and how to comply with the plans may lead companies to avoid the state regulatory regime, ignoring the law while continuing to sell products," she said it a statement. "It would not be acceptable for those manufacturers to compete with responsible manufacturers that may be forced to increase prices in Massachusetts in order to comply with new state burdens."
"This is a fairly libertarian bill. All it says is that this type of [recycling] action will take place," Carron said. Shifting the recycling burden to the manufacturers could save Massachusetts $21 million annually, he estimated.
Tech firms whose products would be impacted by the measure argue that establishing a recycling program would increase product prices, ultimately socking consumers with the costs. Yet Carron said consumers are clamoring the most for his plan.
"Their consumers are getting frustrated," he said. "They are being bombarded with the next technology, and they can't get rid of their old products." He added the bill could help spur a new industry in the state for raw computer and other electronics components.
Illinois Law Sparks Telecom Fight
Groups and companies supporting competition in local telephone service have challenged an Illinois law that curbed the ability of a state agency to enforce federal telephone regulations.
The Association for Local Telecommunications Services (ALTS), AT&T, MCI and Voices for Choices last Friday sued to overturn a law that prevents the Illinois Commerce Commission from enforcing aspects of the 1996 Telecommunications Act.
They argue that the law compels the Commerce Commission to charge much higher rates to local carriers who rent access to the telecom networks owned by dominant regional Bell firms such as SBC Communications. Additionally, they said the statute overrides the recent recommendations of a state panel that those rental fees be lowered.
Gov. Locke Signs Tech Research Measure
Washington Gov. Gary Locke last week largely endorsed legislation that would create a technology research grant program.
Locke signed into law a bill, H.B. 1003, that is designed to boost job growth and business by providing grants to spur the transfer of technology into the commercial sector through research and other initiatives. But he cautioned that he could not approve one section of the measure.
"Section 3 of the bill would have created an account to be spent directly by the Washington Technology Center, which is a private, nonprofit organization, not a state agency," he said. Only state agencies may spend funds directly from state accounts, he added in explaining his line-item veto of that portion of the measure.
Toward A More Secure Crime Database
Pennsylvania officials have tapped the Internet security firm VeriSign to provide authentication technology and other security services for a network that facilitates the sharing of criminal and other law enforcement data among federal, state and local agencies.
VeriSign will provide its public-key infrastructure (PKI) services in order to help verify the identities of users who access the system for information, which will be encrypted to try to prevent unauthorized people from penetrating the network.
Currently, the network's members include 11,000 users in 38 Pennsylvania counties, 51 federal and state agencies, and 200 municipal police departments. The service "will enable us to secure data quickly and without the tremendous upfront costs associated with building our own PKI system," network director Linda Rosenberg said in a statement.
The network also is involved in a national information-sharing effort backed by the National Governors Association and the federal Homeland Security Department.
California Students Warned About File Sharing
The University of California at Davis is warning its students that they could be held responsible for illegally trading songs, films and other digital content on university computer networks.
University Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw, Vice Chancellor of Administration Stan Nosek and John Bruno, vice provost of information and educational technology, cautioned students, faculty and staff in a mass e-mail Tuesday that copyright holders are becoming more aggressive about guarding their intellectual property rights. The officials noted that recent lawsuits filed by the Recording Industry Association of America against four university students resulted in settlements that cost the students from $12,000 to $17,000 each.
Members of the university community can be held criminally liable for using file-trading systems such as Kazaa or Morpheus, the officials wrote. "We would like you to be very aware that initiation of legal action by copyright holders is becoming more of a reality every day," the e-mail stated. "When copyright holders resort to legal actions, there is little the university will be able to do to protect copyright infringers."
The university will create a Web site designed to inform students and other members of the community about copyright law and the legal uses of protected content, officials said.
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