The program covers household computers, televisions, cellphones and other electronic devices, and requires that original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) establish a recovery program that recycles 60 percent of the electronic products they sell in the state within the first year of the law and 80 percent the second year. According to the measure, OEMs also would be exempt from state antitrust laws for the purposes of setting up the program, thus they could establish partnerships with other manufacturers to create a cooperative recycling program.

Possible recovery efforts for manufacturers may include establishing a system, where consumers could return discarded equipment to retailers, or making arrangements with private computer processors or with local government recycling programs to collect used and obsolete electronic devices. The bill also creates a landfill ban for designated electronics.

The introduction of the bill stems from a 2002 Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (Madison) survey, which revealed that Badger State households had landfilled an estimated 24,000 tons of televisions, 10,000 tons of computer monitors, as well as 3,000 tons of other computer equipment.