Like other states and communities across the U.S., North Carolina is searching for a solution to its growing pile of electronic discards. In some respects, this challenge is timely. North Carolina has a well-developed public infrastructure for collecting recyclables run by city and county governments. It successfully diverts more than a million tons of materials each year from disposal and provides excellent, convenient and predictable service to households statewide. North Carolina is well situated to use this mature collection system to recover discarded electronics. In another respect, the electronics challenge could not have come at a worse time. Local governments are under tremendous fiscal pressure, and their ability to retain programs, let alone start new ones, is severely hampered. With state coffers also stretched thin and no consistent help from the federal government, local recycling programs often find themselves on their own in dealing with the e-scrap problem. And dealing with this problem will be difficult. Where well-run curbside programs for standard recyclables cost as low as $100 to $150 per ton to operate, the price tag for electronics collection is closer to $400 per ton, complete with a cost market for the materials.
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