Today's Wall Street Journal has an article about where tv's go to die ("As Old Electronics
Pile Up, Some States Crack Down", p. B1) or http://interactive.wsj.com.
Here are some excerpts to avoid copyright blah blah blahs.
On the third floor of an 84-year-old downtown
warehouse here, two dozen workers wielding hammers and drills are
ripping apart television sets. After reducing the sets to rubble, they
sort
wires, plastic, wood and circuit boards. "We run it like a TV-repair
shop in
reverse," says one of the workers, Yusuf Mustafaa.
The methodical destruction is one way of dealing with an increasingly
difficult -- and potentially dangerous -- problem: the nation's
mounting pile
of electronics trash.
With sales of TVs, wireless phones, computers and monitors at record
levels, consumers are junking their outmoded models by the carload --
replete with harmful metals, such as nickel in batteries and lead in TV
tubes. The refuse is expected to grow in this decade as consumers
replace
generations of televisions with new digital models.
Keeping the cast-off electronics out of landfills is a slow and costly
process
that hasn't yet won widespread support, but environmentalists and
regulators have been making some progress. In April, Massachusetts
banned public disposal of TVs and computer screens, urging residents to
take advantage of an ad hoc network of charities and recyclers. Florida
and Connecticut are considering the same thing. Japan and some European
nations also regulate the disposal of electronic goods.
Some parts of Minnesota have been recyling TVs for years. But the state
hasn't imposed such a ban on disposal, officials say, because it
doesn't
want to adopt a statewide regulation without an economical process that
entices manufacturers and waste companies to share costs. "No single
one
of us is going to take on this burden alone," says Sherry Enzler,
director of
the state's Office of Environmental Assistance.
...
For other states, the first hurdle is just getting the TVs to a central
spot.
The nation's largest TV-recycling company, Environcycle Inc. of
Hallstead,
Pa., gets most of its sets from the junk piles of TV manufacturers.
Just
10% comes from community collections, says Vice President Greg
Voorhees, although he expects that to grow as more states impose limits
on dumping.
...
____________________________________
Peter Anderson
RecycleWorlds Consulting
4513 Vernon Blvd. Ste. 15
Madison, WI 53705-4964
Phone:(608) 231-1100/Fax: (608) 233-0011
E-mail:recycle@msn.fullfeed.com
Other Archives - Generated on : Fri Jul 14 2000 - 10:23:03 EDT