Legislation requiring manufacturers to implement plans to recycle their televisions, computer monitors and other electronic devices containing lead was approved Monday by the California Senate.
The bill by Sen. Byron Sher, D-Stanford, targets so-called e-waste, which Sher described as a rapidly growing waste disposal problem.
His bill, sent to the Assembly by a 26-13 vote, would require manufactures either to develop recycling plans for their electronic devices or pay a fee to the state to cover the cost of collecting and recycling them when their wear out.
Gov. Gray Davis vetoed a Sher bill last year that would have put a $10 recycling fee on each of the millions of televisions and computers sold in California. That measure was expected to raise $240 million a year to cover recycling costs.
``We should compel industry to solve this problem,'' he said in his veto message.
Sher responded with this year's legislation, which he said was modeled on a plan used by the European Union and that wasn't opposed by California companies.
Meanwhile, the Assembly on Monday approved a bill by Assemblywoman Judy Chu, D-Monterey Park, that would ban the intentional use of lead, mercury, cadmium and hexavalent chromium, in packaging materials, starting in 2006. Incidental use would be banned by 2008.
The four heavy metals have been linked to cancer and other health problems. Macon Telegraph