The issue of “e-waste” has been receiving a lot of attention recently, mostly from critics concerned about discarded electronics being shipped off to developing countries for disposal (conveniently ignoring the positive business opportunities in surplus materials), yet environmentalists need to look no farther than their own government for contributing to this “problem.”
This past Saturday, June 13, 2009, all television stations in the United States began broadcasting in digital television (DTV), switching from the previous method of analog broadcasting as mandated by the federal government. The reasoning behind this switch, according to the DTV.gov website, was “to offer improved picture and sound quality,” as well as freeing up the airways for public safety communications.
In an attempt to soften the effects of this regulation, the government had the idea of offering $40 coupons to offset the costs of a converter box (which can run up to $80) that would be necessary for older televisions to continue to function. However, as of January 4, 2009, more than five months before the switch, the government had already run out of coupons. Estimates suggest that 1 in 4 households will dispose of a TV, many of them in perfect working condition, due to the switch to DTV.
The common theme here is regulation, regulation, regulation. Environmentalists are pushing for the U.S. to ratify the Basel Convention, a document preventing e-waste transfers to other countries, yet they have federal DTV regulation to add to the amount of used electronics. Glad to see all that legislation is working out for them.
Image source: Utah Dept. of Environmental Quality.
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Another reason behind the switch was to free up a good-sized chunk of the RF spectrum, which has been legendarily cluttered and mismanaged by the FCC. This chunk has already been auctioned off, but the FCC also provided some white space for unlicensed spectrum use. I would like to see more allocation of open spectrum and a decentralized system, or possibly a property-rights based model, rather than the current command-and-control approach.
Not everything about this switch was a bad thing, though I have to agree that the way the government implemented the switch was horrible. The switch was supposed to take place back in February, but the deadline was extended and more money was allocated for converter coupons in the Reinvestment Act. The cost of the whole thing was ridiculously excessive, and as usual for Congress, the process moved at a glacial pace.
Excellent points Evan! Merin’s point is well taken too, which critiques regulations associated with managing e-waste, rather than FCC spectrum policy. Policymakers continue to fight market solutions for managing what is an inevitable and growing waste stream of electronic waste, even though their policies–even helpful policies–create more waste to manage. They trend toward regulations via such things as the Basel Convention, which makes recycling more difficult and impedes marketplace solutions. As more people toss out their old television sets, governments need to allow market solutions for managing them. Unfortunately, they seem more interested in securing unworkable command-and-control policies instead of allowing marketplace solutions.
Check out this CEI paper on the Basel Convention:
http://cei.org/gencon/025,01424.cfm