Hopefully common sense will win out (a guy can only pray and hope) with
e-waste or any other scrapping efforts. If officials were "smart" (I know that's a tall task and only through political pressure at all scales of gov--that means people constantly ragging on their elected officials if needed, something most Americans don't do unless massively pushed) let the current system work as it does. For big businesses and institutions if they need to take their e-waste to a certified operation either because they want to feel better about themselves or if various govs think places of that size with that much e-waste need to be told how to get rid of it, ok I can probably live with that.
Trying to make everyone everywhere handle e-waste the same as such big businesses then I think the will back fire on the regulators (and everybody else) by more e-waste will need up in the ditches (if yards have to crack down on what the common guy can bring in). There's miles and miles of ditches along township gravel roads in my states and they all can't be patrolled for people dumping stuff if they basically can't do what they want with limited regulations. Not that I in anyway condone this, I'm only stating the obvious from what I know can happen. Us Midwesterners are generally pretty tidy people but if gov pushes people hard enough they may get unintended consequences from what the ultimate goal is of a cleaner environment. Most Americans will put up with a lot but sooner or later a good percentage aren't sheep and will rebel with such burdensome conditions, either by pushing back by getting politically active or by their "feet" and going illegal. The EPA is not a government of its own (at least not yet). Sooner or later the general public if enough are mad enough will fight back (either by putting into place an administration that has less regulations or by taking them to court). As the old adage says, "the enemy has a vote in how a war plays out." I think the same can be said of the American people who still have some say on how their lives are lived (at least that's my hope).
So, if the current sort of two-tier system works, leave it alone and let it work. If the screws get tightened then use your voice, vote, and maybe your money to fight back. Otherwise the ditches will get littered more than they may already be...
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