the toxic television

01/01/2005 09:12:00 PM
Flat screen TVs were one of the hottest selling items this Christmas. So there are a lot of CRT sets either looking for new homes or to be trashed. Surely, there's got to be a great opportunity here for a consumer electronics brand or large retailers like Wal-Mart, Circuit City and Best Buy, to step in and do one of either two things:

1. Redistribute the sets to the needy

2. Develop a program for recycling

Televisions are full of a toxic cocktail of chemicals . The average CRT TV has between 4-8lbs of lead and needs proper disposal. The statistics are staggering, with the continued growth of flat screens, it's predicted that by 2006 more than 163,000 computers and TVs will need to be disposed of a day!

Japan recently passed a law and created a system with retailers, manufacturers and consumers each playing a role. The consumer has to pay a recycling fee, but proper disposal is now law.

Business Week on Europe's new technology enviro legislation.

Technology can help. Manufacturers are making set with fewer parts and sets that are easier to recycle. Companies are also emerging that use technology to help separate out the harmful materials and make recycling easier.

It's not that the US has no programs. There are some grassroots efforts and sporadic state legislation. Some manufacturers, like HP and Dell are making moves, but its becoming a large problem, given the rate of growth of flat screen technologies.

Clearly a significant marketing effort is needed to help educate the consumer about the issues and what role they can play. To make this happen, public and private organizations will need to get together and co-ordinate a national program.

Here's an NPR story on the subject of television recyling.
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