Starting next April, Californians may pay $6 to $10 more when they buy a new television or computer to offset the cost of recycling discarded electronics equipment.

The fee is imposed by a law signed by Gov. Gray Davis last month that aims to eliminate a growing junk-heap of computer and television monitors. Cathode ray tubes (CRTs) contain high concentrations of lead, and have been banned from state landfills since 2001 for fear they will contaminate ground water.

California's Environmental Protection Agency estimates six million monitors are stacked in state homes and offices waiting to be tossed.

California is not alone in trying to cope with discarded electronics products. More than 50 bills were introduced in 29 states this year addressing the environmental and fiscal impacts of e-waste, according to the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators.

Few of those bills have passed, and none are as far-reaching as California's new law. The latter will fund statewide collection and recycling of e-waste, and requires toxic materials like lead and mercury to be eliminated from electronic products sold in the state by 2007. California's law also establishes a first-in-the-nation ban on the export of e-waste to foreign countries that don't meet U.S. environmental protection standards.

"This is a great start by California. Now other states need to follow suit," said David Wood, director of the Grassroots Recycling Network, a Madison, Wis., based nonprofit that has developed model legislation for e-waste management.

Lawmakers in Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Oregon have created task forces to investigate the e-waste problem.

Massachusetts, Minnesota and Maine also passed a ban similar to California's that outlaws the dumping of CRTs.

There is no precise estimate of how much e-waste is piling up in the nation's landfills, but the National Safety Council estimates that 500 million defunct computers and monitors will be discarded by 2007.

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that e-waste accounts for 40 percent of lead found in landfills and 70 percent of heavy metals, like mercury and cadmium.

The National Solid Wastes Management Association (NSWMA) opposes bans on the dumping of e-wastes. The NSWMA is a nonprofit that represents the commercial waste industry, and argues that e-wastes have not been proven to contaminate the environment.

"It is very clear that there is no scientific evidence that (E-waste) causes problems," Chaz Miller, NSWMA state programs director, said.

Computer monitors have been shown to fail the EPA acid leach aid test, which indicates lead could contaminate the environment from a landfill, Wood said. But there have not yet been any reported cases of actual contamination.

"The fact that there is no evidence of contamination is because not enough time has passed for landfills to be tested," Wood said.

Outlawing e-waste dumping can be costly for states because someone has to pay for recycling. A few electronics companies, like Hewlett-Packard Co., operate their own recycling programs. Often, local governments bear the brunt of the cost.

"If (e-wastes) are going to be banned from disposal, you've got an unfunded mandate for recycling, so local governments are stuck with a bill of recycling products they never manufactured," Miller said.

Many environmentalists advocate making the electronics industry responsible for its products from "cradle to grave."

"We have to shift the cost and responsibility onto brand owners. It's not just an equity issue, it's because the problems with these products is that they're toxic, so the prime directive is to change the way the product is designed," Wood said.

State and local governments, which are major consumers of computer products, may soon use their purchasing power to pressure the industry to recycle