When it comes to being truly green, even the most ardent among us is probably not as green as they think they are.

That's the implied conclusion of a recent General Accounting Office report on electronic waste. The report, issued by an agency that reports to Congress, is fairly critical of the Environmental Protection Agency, which reports to the president.

Now that doesn't mean that there are just a whole lot of politics at work here. The GAO report does make some suggestions on regulation enforcement and adoption that the executive branch has pretty much made it clear that it is not likely to pursue. We can't know what another administration might do exactly, but it's pretty safe to say it would be more than the current one.

Politics aside, the GAO report backs a United Nations survey that says a large amount of the electronic products that are exported from the U.S. to other countries is mishandled. A lot of this has to do with the simple fact that U.S. regulations today are primarily focused on outdated CRT monitors. And even then, enforcement of the regulation is spotty at best.

The GAO report calls for the EPA to come into compliance with a number of regulations in force around the world. As much as that may pain some people, the simple fact of the matter is that corporations will probably find it to be in their best interest to back some level of increased Federal regulation. After all, coming into compliance with one Federal standard is going to be a lot less expensive than trying to keep track with any number of municipal or state regulations. Furthermore, there are already a dizzying array of energy certifications in addition to a number of levels of green associated with just how environmentally friendly a given product really is. Keeping track of all these certifications can be itself a full time job.

In the meantime, saving energy is always a good thing from a cost perspective. But if you really want to think of yourself as being truly green then you need to start giving some thought to where all that gear you're upgrading and buying each year ultimately winds up in the dirt. Right now, there is not enough landfill capacity to handle all the gear heading for the dumps in the U.S. That means a very large percentage of it is heading overseas to an environment where the best description of the disposal process is probably rudimentary at best.