California's Electronic Waste Recycling Act!!!...Huh?

**bubba** · 21st December 05, 02:37 PM

Iolaus, it's a matter of economics. It's cheaper to built things to a single standard so they'll build to the standard that has the most future potential. In this case, the EU is a rising market while the US has hit saturation and is declining.

**GlassMan** · 21st December 05, 07:07 PM

I wouldn't exactly say it is a matter of economics when the regulation is opposed by industry and imposed by government. It is simply that currently the strictest environmental regulations are imposed by the EU and it is easier for government bureaucrats to adopt someone elses standard than it is to come up with your own.

**Valencian Kilted** · 22nd December 05, 02:43 AM

Asia, eastern europe, north africa, mexico and brazil are growing areas in terms of industrial and bussiness potential. EU is suffering as well as USA the "globalisation" problems and loosing the massive tech bussiness. All the great "High Tech" industries are moving to China, Malaisia, Romania, Vietnam, Mexico, etc,... and flying away from here. Of course, we could be saving lots of money avoiding to apply those rules over environmental protection, (as USA did rejecting the Kyoto Protocol), and then try to be more competitive, but at the end, we noticed that the cost of solving the problems caused by climatic change and other environmental problems is higher than the final cost of trying to be safe from them.

How much will be the ammount of "repairing" everything that hurricanes did this year in USA?, how much will it cost to my country to solve the lack of rains? Since May, in my hometown we have only received 68 litres of rain,... and we are lucky because last winter it snowed and some reserves under the soil were filled, but, what will happen next year?,... the whole planet is giving us back what we did to it, what we did to us all... and I'm not also a "greenpeace hooligan", ok? I simply have eyes, and my olive and almond trees are thirsty!!

Somebody said once that if a stone falls in USA, it can provoke an earthquake in China,... that means that everything we do affects us all. We can blame Russia, China or USA for being massive contaminators, but to do so, we must be the first at the time of taking action to change things at home, and things are not being done properly also here at all. We all must do the same effort to compulse our neighbours, politicians, etc,... to change of attitude, and this means we must be the first in changing our attitude,... that's what a highlander would do, in my opinion, as the idea of a highlander is somebody linked to his land and the nature that surrounds him, and with courage and determination enough to make things happen, or at least to fight for them, isn't it?

¡Salud!

T O N O

**macwilkin** · 22nd December 05, 04:34 AM

Thanks to all for keeping this thread civil in light of it's political nature, and let's continue to do so! ;)

Cheers,

Todd

**Valencian Kilted** · 22nd December 05, 07:51 AM

Originally Posted by cajunscot

Thanks to all for keeping this thread civil in light of it's political nature, and let's continue to do so! ;)

Cheers,

Todd

Politics conversations are not bad, in my opinion, the only limit you have to put to your tongue is the one that avoids you to offer or accept a beer from the opposite idealist! and of course, at last, it's all a matter of sharing ideas or conceptions of our world,... so it's beautiful!.

¡Salud!

T O N O

**GlassMan** · 22nd December 05, 11:07 AM

Originally Posted by Valencian Kilted

We can blame Russia, China or USA for being massive contaminators, but to do so, we must be the first at the time of taking action to change things at home, and things are not being done properly also here at all. We all must do the same effort to compulse our neighbours, politicians, etc,... to change of attitude, and this means we must be the first in changing our attitude,...

I agree with you that if Europe is going to try to get everyone else to change then they should first correct their own behavior. It's one thing that frustrates me about my own country. We are more than happy to chastise other countries for their behavior but we do nothing about our own. It's highly hypocritical but is seems to be the US calling card these days (i.e. on torture, spying, holding prisoners without hearings or rights, etc.)

All I was meaning was that decisions in the US when made by the government are rarely done for good sound economic reasons, but instead can usually be traced to either a give-away of public resources to private campaign contributors or to simple laziness.

I didn't mean to criticize the EU decision, just to point out that things here in the US are not as rational as many expect.

Also, as for stained glass, the EU decision has led to the creation of many new products that would never have come to pass (such as lead-free channel/came, lead-free solder, lead-free flux, bendable zinc came, etc). When the laws against lead were first created here in the US there were no such products and the decision to exempt stained glass was made because without the exemption stained glass would cease to exist. Now that such products are available, I see no reason to not adopt them. The more we use them the less expensive they will become. In my own studio I frequently use lead free solder and always use lead-free flux.