Panasonic, Sharp, and Toshiba form recycling partnership

We surprisingly haven't heard a ton about green(er) tech at this year's CES, but there's still some news going down -- and Panasonic, Sharp and Toshiba have just announced that they've formed a new joint venture, the sexily named Electronics Manufacturers Recycling Management Company, to handle collection and recycling of their products in the US. MRM seems to have formed in response to some new stringent regulations recently passed in Minnesota, as well as similar regs that are about to go on the books in Connecticut, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, and Washington, but the idea is to provide recycling programs to state and local governments and other manufacturers -- and to that end, MRM already has deals with Hitachi, JVC, Mitsubishi, Philips, Pioneer, Sanyo, and Syntax-Brillian. MRM's managed to collect and handle 750 tons of old gear in its first five months in Minnesota, a feat the company credits to its strategy of making electronics disposal convenient to consumers -- sounds like an idea whose time has come.