US state bans monitor landfilling

A US state has moved to ban the landfill disposal of cathode ray tubes (CRT) used in televisions and PC monitors.

From July, Massachusetts, the first state to take such a step, will force firms to either give their monitors away, or pay to have them recycled. The move is seen as a way to assist the growth of the local recycling industry while protecting the environment from harmful lead found in CRTs.

George Cook, chief executive at Charity Logistics - a UK organisation which uses unemployed people to re-engineer and distribute used PCs for schools in the developing world - welcomed the move. Cook explained that the main challenge with monitors is the coating inside the screen. "You just can't separate it, which makes it very hard to recycle," he said.

Cook said that with three to four million PCs expected to go into landfill during 1999, a similar approach by the UK government could help clear up problems such as the shortage of IT professionals and the lack of computers in schools, while backing its claim of being an environmentally committed government.

He said: "By taking on unemployed youngsters to train and educate in the revamping of PCs, and passing the end results onto schools, these problems are addressed while looking after the environment."