Being a registered California e-waste collector I know a bit about the system.
In brief:
The system was designed to deal primarily with CRTs (i.e. monitors, televisions, etc.) but it covers any display device (i.e. LCD, plasma, etc.) The idea was to make it cheap/free for residents to recycle old monitors since California passed laws in 2000 making it illagel to put CRTs into landfills because of the lead. The legislation was subsequently updated to ban any electronics from landfill (a good thing in my opinion).
Before SB20/50 (the bills that setup the recycling system) were passed in 2003, electronics recyclers used to charge a fee to take monitors and TVs because they had relatively little scrap recovery value. SB20/50 setup a subsidy system to make it free for the consumer to recycle their monitors, but in reality it just passed the costs along to the recycler. True, the consumer now pays a surcharge whenever they buy a new TV or monitor (whatever type it is) to the tune of $5-$15 or something like that, but there are a lot of old TVs and monitors that were in existence prior to this new surcharge.
Within the system there are two types of recycling entities: "Collectors" and "Recyclers".
Collectors are those that simply collect e-waste items but don't necessarily process them. Recyclers are those that actually do dismantling and processing of the electronics. Keep in mind that this refers primarily to the processing of CRTs, as the EPA and OSHA get involved when you are dealing with the teardown of lead-bearing CRTs.
The barrier to entry for Collectors is practically non-existent. You just need to be able to fill out a form. The barrier to entry for Recyclers is a lot higher, since you need to get certification from the DTSC (Department of Toxic Substances Control, the California equivalent of the EPA), have your facility regularly audited, etc.
The mandated reimbursement is $.20/lb for Collectors, and $.39/lb for Recyclers (used to be $.48/lb). The money is disbursed to the Recyclers, who must then share that disbursement with the Collector. For example, say a Collector acquires 100lbs of CRTs. They then bring these to a certified Recycler, who logs this information and submits claims to the State. The Recycler then gets $.39/lb from the State, and of that they must pass on $.20/lb to the Collector. So the Recycler ends up with $39-$20 = $19, and the collector gets $20. If the Recycler is the receiver of the items then they get to keep the whole $.39/lb.
Now, back before the economic armegeddon, competition for CRTs was so fierce that some Recyclers were paying up to $.30/lb, sometimes more for very large volume Collectors. I used to get $.30/lb from my Recycler. They were able to offer this by somehow making money on the backend by selling the scrap copper, aluminum, plastic and electronics extracted from the item. The leaded glass was still a profit sink, but I think my recycler had a deal with a large consumer electronics manufacturer to supply them with the glass, so that's how they were able to offer $.10/lb over the mandated amount. Now that the scrap markets have plummeted they are only paying out the mandated $.20/lb, which sucks. It probably sucks even more for the Recycler, since with all their costs they probably make less or at par of what the Collector makes.
To prevent devices coming in from out of state, logs consisting of name and address must be kept by the Collector/Recycler. This is apparently audited in some way. At some point the State started to require the collection of a phone number and contact person if the number of CRTs dropped off by one entity was 5 or more. I'm not sure what the State does to audit this but I assume they randomly call the people whose names are submitted on the logs.
Overall, I think the system sucks. Before it came about, I used to charge anywhere from $10 to $35 to take a monitor or TV (depending on its size) and pay out anywhere from $5-$8 to dispose of them with my upstream recycler. When the system was first put into place I opted out and continued to charge a fee to take them, and the Recyclers were paying to take them from me, so it was profit on top of profit. Eventually I couldn't sell to the collectors without being part of the system, and I couldn't charge anymore because the system wans you to accept for free to make it easier for the consumer. The competition that sprung up made it untenable to charge anymore anyway, so I had to go to the all free model to stay in business. Profits plunged, and its been a struggle ever since.
So its a perfect example of how government interferes with business, imposes profit-draining regulation, and generally makes a mess of things. Sure, its cheaper now for the consumer, since they get free recycling (except for the surcharge they pay on new devices) but the people who actually do the recycling aren't making the profits they used to. So many people became Collectors when the system put in place that it just diluted the market. Any loser with a pulse can get registered and so now we have a flood of collectors all competing for the State welfare. With the recent collapse of the economy a few players have left the game but I still have competition to deal with, and this town just ain't big enough for both of us. And then there are the clowns that come from out of area, paper neighborhoods with flyers offering free recycling on such and such date, then they come through and sweep it all up (or at least they get what I don't get first
So I guess that wasn't all too brief, and I probably missed a detail or two, but that, in a nutshell, is how the system in California works. Other states are copying the model. The problem now is the fund that pays out to the Collectors/Recyclers will probably dry up by year end if not sooner, thanks to California's budgetary problems, but due primarily to the drop in sales of new TVs and monitors. If people aren't buying new stuff, they aren't paying the surcharge which goes into the pool that pays the Collectors/Recyclers. I predict a collapse of the system, and a return to the days when those offering recycling services will set fees for handling the stuff. Which is how it should be.
