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the old item. A significant numbplake steps to properly dispose of these items. Thirty percent of homeowners and multi family complex residents have taken their old appliances or electronics to a designated disposal facility. While 33% of homeowners and 18 percent of multi family com- plex residents arranged a special pickup with their garbage hauler. However it is getter harder to donate electronic items to chanties because they often received items that did not work or animated items for which there was no resale value As a result some chanties such as Goodwill and The Salvation Army no longer take electronics. product 6tes mds p A growing It end for disposal in the electronics industry is called product stewardship. That is where a manufacturer agrees to steward the pro duct through its life cycle Thus the company does not forget about the computer or VCR once it is sold Instead the company enacts a system to take back He item once a consumer no longer wants it For example Sony will take back any of its electronic items at no additional cost to He consumer, retailer or electronics dspo sal com- pany. So when your Sony DAD player wears out you can take it back to a store that sells them such as Best Buy. B est Buy will take the item Gon the consumer at no charge and ship it back to Sony. Sony then reimburses B est Buy for its expenses in handling He item. In 2001 Panasonic and Shape an similar pilot programs. Gateway computers will give you a rebate on a new com- puterifyou return any brand of old computer. Some companies are charging a recycling fee when He item is bought The consumer can then return He item for Gee when he or she no longer wants it The NEnnesota Office of Environmental Assistance is acting on behalf of the State in pushing product stewardship programs. In particular it is working for manufacturers and retailers to charge a recycling fee at the time of purchase That way a consumer can return the item for free when they no longer want it The MOEA is also working with manufacturers to increase the amount of recycled material in new electronic items. Recycling mtd Disposal Once an item is accepted at an electronics recycling facilities He company evaluates the item IN st workers determine if the item can be repaired or refurbished and either they do it or it is sold to a company that can If the item cannot be salvaged it is broken down into its components most of which are sold to Courtesy Basel Action companies that recycle the components and some of which are Network disposed of following state and federal guidelines. Not all electronics recycling facilities do this though. Some ship the items overseas to be broken down. A February 2002 report from He environmental group Basel Action Network dom mented cases in China and India where the electronics disman- tling was causing pollution problems and workers had little or no protection against potentially harmful chemicals (see photo at left). RamseyCountyrecommendsconsumersuseAssetBecov - ery Corporation in St Paul for disposal because it was He only