Minnesota established an electronics recycling program in 2007, and while it’s succeeded in diverting millions of pounds of waste, experts say it needs an upgrade to adapt to modern technology and capture more of the stream. The current law targets large cathode-ray-tube televisions and dated office electronics such as fax machines. But the waste stream has changed over the past few years, with lighter electronics becoming far more pervasive.
Those smaller devices are driving toxic pollution in landfills and incinerators, said Maria Jensen, co-founder of the nonprofit Recycling Electronics for Climate Action. Today, 70 percent of heavy metals such as lead and mercury found in landfills come from electronic waste, according to the study.
Getting more electronic waste out of standard trash is a pressing matter for the waste management industry, according to Bill Keegan, president of Den-Con companies in Blaine. Today, the industry is losing 3 percent of its recycling infrastructure annually due to fires sparked by small lithium-ion batteries, he said.