Recycling Tax Plan for PCs Due for Debate

It may be a hard sell in today's economic and political climate, but a plan to tack a recycling tax onto the price of computers and monitors is expected to emerge in Congress early next month.

Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., has crafted a bill that would assess a fee of no more than $10 on PCs, monitors and laptop computers, aides to the congressman said last week. Under the plan, the Environmental Protection Agency would disperse the funds through grants to organizations that reuse, resell or recycle computers and to groups that extract raw materials.

With an estimated 250 million computers slated for the junk heap by 2005, the plan - however untimely - is likely a harbinger of things to come, proponents say.

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