Annie Leonard’s “Story of Stuff Project” has a new video out. As always, it’s cute, it’s informative, and it’s timely.

“The Story of Electronics” is both geared toward getting folks thinking about better buying decisions as we approach the holiday shopping season… and getting them to think beyond that, toward better laws and more responsible manufacturing.

We’re throwing out 100,000 computers every day in the US, Leonard notes in an article at Huffington Post – and that’s the way the current system is designed to work. She calls it “Designed for the Dump,” and it leaves us with 25 million tons of e-waste every year- that gets dumped, burned or recycled. So while for instance using e-waste to make last winter’s Olympic medals was a nice gesture, it really didn’t make much of a dent in the problem.

There is an alternative that’s taking hold – 22 states have passed Take Back Laws that make it the manufacturer’s responsibility to deal with all this toxic stuff after it reaches the end of its lifespan. As Leonard says,

“Take Back holds manufacturers responsible for their products at the end of their useful life, preventing them from externalizing the cost of recycling or disposing of these hazardous products onto local governments, communities and the environment. Why should taxpayers pay to safely recycle every toxic, poorly designed, short-lived piece of electronic gadgetry that comes through the system? That’s like being an enabler in a dysfunctional relationship. It is time we hold electronics manufacturers responsible for their product design decisions.”

And with these laws creating incentives, the manufacturers are finding ways to innovate, cut down on the toxics used in the first place, and make them easier and cheaper to recycle at the end. And guess what? I turns out it was actually cheaper to do it right in the first place…

Watch the video, then follow some of the links to learn more.