Water takes the path of least resistance.

That’s a straightforward, observable law of nature — so universal that we take it for granted.

From a symbolic standpoint, water’s unimpeded flow suggests something about leadership, too: Make the right thing to do the easiest thing to do. when the right choice is obvious, people will go with the flow every time.

The thought came to mind last weekend while observing the fifth annual Connoquenessing Creek Cleanup. Mike and Christina Handley and their friends have hauled about 100 tons of junk out of the Conno’s waters since the Handleys formed the Allegheny Aquatic Alliance in 2012.

That included about 2,000 old tires and a growing number of castoff TVs, refrigerators, computers and other appliances.

Christine Handley observes: “Anything that costs money for people to throw away is getting dumped” in the creek.

The dumping of electronic waste — e-waste for short — should be particularly worrisome considering the types of volatile and potentially toxic chemical compounds frequently used to make them.

It’s an issue that should be of particular concern to state Sen. Scott Hutchinson, Senate Conservation Committee chairman, whose district includes a large portion of the Connoquenessing watershed.

Since 2010 the state has had a manufacturer-funded e-waste recycling program that obligates manufacturers to recycle 100 percent of the total weight of products sold two years previous.

At a hearing convened last spring by Hutchinson’s committee, a top-level state environmental official said that’s simply not enough.

Ken Reisinger, deputy secretary for waste, air, radiation and remediation at the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, said the obligations are being met early on in the year by manufacturers, cutting off funding for collection sites statewide for the rest of the year. Consequently, the number of collection sites statewide has fallen from 570 in 2015 to 377 this year — and just 32 of those 377 sites are accepting all devices covered by the law. That’s additionally cumbersome because of a landfill-disposal ban for electronics in place since 2013.

Pending legislation would increase the manufacturers’ recycling obligation to 150 percent of sales weight from two years before. That would be a good start.

Additional steps are needed — steps to simplify the process for returning worn-out or broken items and make the process more accessible to consumers in every county of Pennsylvania.

On the one hand, there should be some sympathy for a consumer who can’t dispose of a television at a landfill and can’t find a recycling drop-off center.

But on the other hand, a society whose average household can afford a large-screen, high definition color TV should also require the average household to dispose of the old TV responsibly.

There’s plenty of trash to pull out of the Connoquenessing without old electronics in the muddy mix.