Municipal leaders from New York City to Niagara County say the state's 6-year-old electronic waste recycling law is putting a costly burden on local governments.
The 2010 "e-waste" law requires manufacturers to manage and fund programs to collect and recycle electronic waste in New York. But local officials told an Assembly hearing Wednesday that much of the cost and burden is falling on municipalities.
Discarded cathode ray tubes, or CRTs, from televisions and computer monitors are the main problem. Their lead content makes them costly to process and recyclers have been passing the cost on to municipalities.
The New York Association of Counties wants the Department of Environmental Conservation to enact regulations to increase free e-waste collections by manufacturers.
