Anyone know about California's e-waste laws?

[dankcomputing]

Since the deaths of Weird Stuff and Excess Solutions/HSC, the place the personal computer originated from, the literal Silicon Valley itself, has been without any real electronics junk store of any kind. You can get a small selection of new/NOS components at Santa Cruz Electronics, Anchor Electronics and San Mateo Electronics and that's it.

But on top of this I'm noticing that even with places that take e-waste it's really difficult - more difficult than e-waste places in any other US location - to get anything out. You can barely bribe them even in an emergency (something legit valuable about to get mulched) anymore. They cite california regulations, insurance, all that BS, but I'm wondering if there's something to the CA laws that makes it especially difficult to sell the recycled goods back to the community. I've heard that there's some kind of tracking infrastructure that keeps stuff from going out once it's in the system. Does anyone know more?

 

[whartung]

Most E-waste facilities in CA that you would likely bump into are "Collectors". Collectors are different from Recyclers and Dismantlers.

Collectors just accumulate the bulk items and forward them on to a Recycler or Dismantler.

The problem with letting random public inside to rummage through a Collectors bins is two fold.

First is simply the insurance against you being injured. If you try to move that 32" big screen TV and blow out your back, that's on them. If you reach in to a bin full of old PCs and cut your self on something, that's on them.

Second is hazardous waste. Everyone involved needs to be trained on the handling of these items, on exposures, etc.

I don't know if there are any laws prohibiting someone who actually worked at one of these places from bringing something out of the facility. But there's all sorts of reasons they wouldn't allow someone to randomly head back and crawl through things.