A story in The Bee's business section today discusses the problem of e-waste -- discarded electronic devices -- and points to some solutions. It's a real environmental nightmare: Computers and other electronic equipment contain significant amounts of heavy metals and other toxic materials, and they're usually not recycled and disposed of properly.

A California law passed last year bans such waste from landfills, and that has created a lucrative business opportunity for people like John Shegerian, who runs Electronic Recyclers in Fresno, which recycled 5 million pounds of equipment this month -- up from 200,000 pounds last September.

It's another example of a sometimes overlooked fact: Cleaning up the environment is not simply a matter of health and safety, though those are paramount concerns. There are also profits to be made, and that kind of incentive usually works better than appeals to good sense and altruism.