Universal Chicken E-Waste or EPA CRT Rule Egg E-Waste?

Swimming Pool? Drowning is dangerous!  Be prepared!

Is an "e-waste" device, such as a CRT computer monitor, hazardous to manage?  What is the safest way to handle a working computer monitor which you have replaced with a new flat screen?

What if you don't have time to read a long blog, and don't have time to edit it into a short one?  Time's up!  Choose your safety standard!

It all comes down  to who you trust, and in Vermont, you don't trust business.  Here is a short Q and A about exports... based on "fair trade recycling".   Another approach, in Vermont's draft regulations, will make reuse hardly worth the effort.

The CRT fails TCLP tests (designed to replicate landfill leaching).  So you should not landfill it.  Landfill  bans were first instituted in Massachusetts when I was recycling director in that state.   (They did not require legislation).  Vermont got around to banning disposal in January 2011.  Having caught up with the standard MA adapted 12 years ago, now Vermont is ready to classify "e-waste" (including used electronics which do not even fail TCLP) as "universal waste", though EPA has not classified them as such.  Not only that, but EPA wrote a long Rule explaining in detail why doing so would be a mistake, and would lead to worse environmental outcomes.

Definition of Solid Waste (DSW): Before a material can be classified as a hazardous waste, it must first be a solid waste as defined under RCRA. Resources, including an interactive tool, are available to help.

USA EPA has an interesting interactive tool on its hazardous waste page which helps define how an object (such as a CRT television) can fail TCLP tests, yet not necessarily be considered either a hazardous or universal waste.


A moon suit is more expensive than a swimsuit.  But "Which is the best standard" is not the same as "which is the most expensive standard".  Destroying reuse and printing meaningless universal waste labels do not make anyone safer.