I went to Best Buy and found that now people are charged recycle fees for electronics they buy such as televisions, computers, radios, etc. Each fee is based on the size of the screen or size of the product. I think the highest fee is 8 dollars, but I just want to say that this is outrageous on top of all the sales tax I have to pay. Now I have to pay the sales tax, cost of item, and a recycle fee? Why do they have this fee now? Is it because there are so many people buying electronics now that ts become hard to dump them or recycle them?
It sounds like a good idea to me as long as the money from the fee is actually being used to create and maintain an electronics-recycling infrastructure. If it’s just going into general revenue, it may be a ripoff.
:: Sunspace, supporter of recycling ::
Electronics contain a lot of toxic waste, including heavy metals. They need to be recycled properly to prevent discharging these toxins into the environment. More people are buying more electronic equipment with increasingly shorter life cycles.
Another approach to this problem is to require manufacturers of electronic equipment to take responsibility for proper disposal of their equipment at the end of its life. This approach is common, if not universal, in Europe. The manufacturer’s naturally add these costs into the price of their products. This approach might have the advantage that unlike a government fee, there’s no possiblity of this cost increase being diverted into the government’s general fund. On the other hand, it still requires government enforcement to ensure that the used goods are collected properly at minimum inconvenience for the user and that the materials are in fact properly processed and disposed of.
There’s been a California Refund Value (CRV) charged on beverage containers for a few years now. You pay the fee at the time of purchase, and you get it back if you recycle the container. Is the recycling fee for electronics similar, in that it is refunded if you take the equipment to a recycling facility?
[sub]Incidentally, I think it’s funny that Honda has a car called the CRV. What’s the CRV on a CRV? Yeah, I know. ‘Small minds are easily amused.’ 
[/sub]
I can understand why you’re irked by an unexpected fee.
However, I’m jealous that you only pay $8. In my town I have to pay $15 to have electronic equipment picked up by the DPW & taken to the hazmat yard, regardless of the size of the equipment. My tiny old TV - $15. Neighbor’s gargantuan wall-size TV - $15. I wish it was based on size! 
Doesn’t appear to be going into the general fund. Looks like the state is using the monies collected to encourage (read subsidize) certain waste collection organizations to become electronics recyclers.
Information: http://www.erecycle.org/fee.htm
The Electronic Waste Recycling Act of 2003: http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/electronics/Act2003/
FWIW, some retailers will absorb the CA EWR fee for you. I do know that Amazon paid it for me “on my behalf” when we bought a laptop recently.
Be sure to keep receipts indicating that you’ve paid the EWR fee on a given item. When you eventually dispose of it, you’ll need to pay the fee or produce evidence the fee has already been paid.
I share your sense of skepticism and suspicion. I have this nagging feeling that it is yet another way for local or state bureaucrats to get more of our money for their own personal schemes and crony systems.
Looking at my receipt where I bought a 19" TV last week, not only did I pay an $8.00 recycling fee, but they charged sales tax on the fee. Thieves!
Damn, talk about rubbing salt in the wound!
We’re presumed guilty by having to pay a fee in advance of “service”. I don’t recall ever recycling an electronic item; I’ve either sold or donated them to another party. Many may have gone out of state, or sold for profitable disassembly and recycling. What does the state do to recycle them “responsibly”. This is pure BS
Wait…now we have to pay fees on zombies?
And under the category of “Better Late Than Never” - Motorgirl, I thought women always said “Size doesn’t matter.”
According to Best Buy’s website:
I too would be skeptical of this fee.
I don’t recycle either, but that’s because I rip the guts out of them to reuse, which is also better than recycling (they don’t reuse the actual components when recycling; they are melted down and reformed into new parts). You’d also be amazed at how many people around here just throw them out with the trash, since that is where I get a lot of stuff, an average of about 1-2 electronics a week in my neighborhood (I just found a combo VCR/DVD player this week and a few weeks earlier, about half a dozen electronics all in the same place, a week or two before that, a couple computers and a LCD monitor, and so on).
I just took a monitor to Best Buy for recycling. I also unloaded a DVD player with them this summer. I’m ok with paying a small fee upfront in order to drop my technotrash there with no hassles. This week or next, also have some inkjet cartridges and those new lightbulbs to drop off.
Here in California (at least in LA) we have toxic waste disposal facilities. You bring in your old paint, toxic cleaning supplies, batteries, weed killer, bug killer, and electronics. The workers are in light hazmat suits. Somebody has to pay for all this - I’m guessing the tax is for this.
Also, regarding Best Buy receiving the old electronics - they are at the start of the chain, they pass it on to the recovery facilities.
My sister-in-law lived in California for several years. From what she’s told me, the CRV is fairly close to being a state-run scam. Specifically, they make it really inconvenient to recycle containers, so few people bother, and most containers end up getting thrown away.
By contrast, here in Michigan, any store that sells soft drinks must accept the containers back for recycling. Your typical supermarket will have automated machines that will take your bottles & cans and print out a receipt that you can take to the register. Very convenient.
And don’t get me started on the nickel the charge you just to recycle a beer can!
That’s not exactly it: It’s pretty convenient to recycle containers. Recycle bins are everywhere. What’s not convenient is getting that CRV value back. To do that you have to drop off your bottles at certain specified locations which are hard to find.
I wrote about a post on a similar topic 4 years ago.Here’s what my $10 got me. I’ve seen the same truck earlier this year, but not in the past 6 months. I guess everyone has a flatscreen now.