Those who recycle such electronic waste are girding for a seasonal rush of such things. In fact, they're fighting over it: A two-year-old California law paying for the disposal of e-waste has birthed a mini industry.

"We're going to see a hell of a lot more stuff," said James Burgett, executive director of the Alameda County Computer Recycling Center in Berkeley, which expects to recycle somewhere north of 200,000 pounds of electronics this fall. California's recycling law forbids tossing in the garbage just about anything with a plug — computers, computer monitors, VCRs and DVD players, television sets, microwave ovens, cell and household phones, printers and the like.

Until a few years ago, consumers had to pay to get rid of many of those items. But with the passage of a groundbreaking state law in 2003, a surcharge tacked to all electronics sold in California pays for that disposal.

It works somewhat like Social Security: Fees from the Nintendo GameCube you just lugged home will pay to get rid of the Sega Genesis it replaces.

And that payment — 48 cents a pound for CRT monitors and televisions, for instance — makes e-waste recycling, well, if not lucrative, at least profitable. In the past two years, a handful of businesses have sprouted in the Bay Area alone to take that

They're offering e-waste drop-offs at local BART stations, open hours at their facilities, even pick-up services.

In San Francisco, Norcal Waste Systems launched RecycleMyJunk.com in 2004. They'll come to your home or business and remove whatever junk you don't need — e-waste, an old couch, major appliances — from wherever it may be in the house.

Typical fee for such service runs $100 to $150, said Norcal spokesman Robert Reed. The San Francisco-only service hauls away between 40 tons and 60 tons a day. About 10 percent of that is e-waste — 132 tons a month.

Of course, residents of almost every Bay Area community, San Francisco included, can schedule a "bulky pick-up" and have that same junk carted away from the curb for no charge. The service is built into the regular garbage fee.

"But we found more and more people want this inside service," Reed said. "You don't want to hurt your back lugging an old refrigerator or couch to the curb."

Residents also apparently find it more convenient to simply drop off the old computer and dead cell phone. Next month, Universal Waste Management will conduct four such drop-offs at BART stations in Oakland, Castro Valley, Dublin and Orinda. It will hold similar events in South San Francisco, Millbrae, Fremont and Union City BART stations in January.

The Oakland-based company hopes to haul off 26 million pounds of consumer electronics by the end of 2006.

Not convenient enough? Another company, Electronic Waste Management, will host drop-offs in Emeryville Public Market and Milpitas High School in December for everything from e-waste to scrap metal.

There's one omission in this enthusiastic rush to cart away consumer waste, however: Nobody takes dead batteries.

By law those cannot go in the garbage. Yet almost no e-waste hauler takes household or rechargeable batteries.

Most Bay Area counties have some collection spots — virtually all city halls in San Mateo County, for instance, or various Alamo, Lafayette, Moraga and Walnut Creek businesses participating in a grass-roots Contra Costa County program — but elsewhere, options are limited.

So for now, the AAs and D cells go into a bucket in the workshop as the console TVs and BetaMax players come rumbling forth.

"What's great is that, from a consumer standpoint, there's so much more access," said Susan Kattchee, senior program manager at Stopwaste.org, Alameda County's effort to reduce waste and increase recycling.

And when it's just as easy to back a truck up to a loading dock and unload a TV as it is to back that truck to an empty ravine, everybody wins, she added.

"Nothing should be dumped illegally anymore."