Klobuchar pushes for federal electronic recycling standards

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar is sponsoring legislation that she says would help the U.S. develop green electronics and new ways to recycle them.

The Minnesota Democrat said the bill has wide support from the electronics and scrap recycling industries. Klobuchar said right now, only about 15 percent of discarded electronics in the U.S. are recycled.

"We just need to find solutions to make it easier to...collect, recycle and reuse our electronic devices," Klobuchar said. "If we succeed it will be good for business, it will be good for our environment and it will be good for our health."

Klobuchar says although Minnesota has some of the strongest "e-waste" recycling laws in the country, tough federal standards are needed. She says making it easier to recycle electronics will also create new, green jobs.

"Most electronic devices contain valuable materials that can be recovered and reused," she said. "So instead of having these old computers sitting in dumps, seeping things that we don't want sucked into our land, we actually can use some of the rich possibilities that you have within computers and electronic devices."

Klobuchar also said much of America's e-waste ends up overseas in developing countries with lax environmental and health standards.