Old TVs cause new problems
By Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY
And later this year— either on Feb. 17 or on June 12 if Congress passes a delay— the USA will switch from analog to digital TV transmission. The number of unwanted TVs will go even higher as consumers upgrade to sets capable of receiving high-definition broadcasts. Though a TV set is benign in the living room, it's not when it is broken up to reach the reusable materials inside. There's a lot of lead, a bit of barium, cadmium, chromium, traces of gold and even mercury in the lamps on some flat screens.
The best way to deal with them is not to throw them away at all but to keep using them, says John Cross of EPA's Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery. Buying a converter box or getting cable or satellite TV will keep a TV useful for years. But if TVs are discarded, the federal agency wants to make sure the materials in them are recycled.
Six states have passed laws making it illegal to throw a TV away, and another five are expected to do so in 2010. Eighteen states, as well as New York City, have ordered electronic recycling programs. But not all the laws include televisions, which in the year of digital conversion is unfortunate.
Find this article at:
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/enviornment/2009-01-26-tv-waste_N.htm
Copyright 2008 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
No comments:
Post a Comment