The Statesman Journal copy editor who crafted the headline over this column is in the lead for “Worst Headline That Contradicts The Piece Below It” for 2007. Here’s the headline:

“Legislation about electronic-waste recycling falls short”

Carol McAlice Currie, an SJ columnist (ccurrie@StatesmanJournal.com, (503) 399-6746) wrote a column that appeared today in which she damns the E-Waste Recycling bill with faint praise:

…

State Rep. Jackie Dingfelder, D-Portland, is the lead co-sponsor of House Bill 2626, which would require free and convenient drop-off sites for electronic waste.

It’s a terrific and long overdue idea, but HB 2626 doesn’t go far enough. As currently written, it applies only to computers, computer monitors, laptops and television sets.

It does not include cell phones, MP3 music players and personal digital assistants — all of which have rechargeable batteries, an explodable component in dire need of recycling.

I won’t condemn the bill, which Dingfelder has been pushing for five years, because the heavy hardware it does apply to already has been stacking up in our landfills and the waste stream. But I wish it included the smaller electronics, which are becoming more disposable by the nanosecond.

Except that she then does precisely that, condemning the bill for not going far enough.

Nothing like a bad headline and a wishy-washy endorsement to provide cover for legislators looking for ways to avoid angering computer and TV makers. Read the rest of the column if you like or, if you want a better use of your time, CALL YOUR HOUSE REPRESENTATIVE and tell him or her to “PASS HB-2626″ and set up a system that can be improved.

The worst system in the world that’s IN PLACE is better than the best possible system that exists only in the imagination of columnists like Currie.

Besides which, weight is a good proxy for environmental impact (lead being a huge constituent of the toxic waste stream that we’re currently pouring into our landfills over our aquifers). The big TVs and computer and computer monitors ARE more important to capture than the little MP3s and what not, simply because there’s a lot more toxic materials in the big items. (Not that we shouldn’t set about capturing the rest — but the bill we have is the bill we have, and there’s nothing in HB-2626 will keep us from adding other items later.)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007 at 5:28 pm and is filed under General, Health Care, Livability. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.