California: Illegal to throw away singing cards

Companies like Hallmark make plenty of money all year round with the kind of merchandise they have on offer, and there seems to be a card for every occasion now, be it births, deaths, anniversaries, festivals (religious or otherwise), you name it, they have it. Pretty pictures emblazoned across the front side of the card with meaningful words printed inside are no longer enough to capture the attention of the receiver. No sir, compact electronics such as a recorded song which plays automatically whenever you open the card ups the ‘shock and awe’ ante – and has been that way for quite some time already. The thing is, what do you do with such electronic cards once the battery dies out? Throwing it in the trash can might not be such a good idea after all if you are living in California, as the state has deemed it illegal to toss such cards into the trash. After all, singing cards have batteries and electronic circuit boards which have been classified as Universal Waste (U-Waste) in California, so disposing them into sanitary landfills is illegal. If you reside outside of California, you might want to stop tossing these into the waste bin, too, sicne they are e-waste, containing toxic materials in there.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Green
Tags: california