CRT’s From Old TV’s Are Bad News
A bulldozer is parked next to a hole in the ground filled with televisions and other electronics in an illegal landfill in Scott County, Kentucky. Global Environmental Service confessed to the illegal dumping
Low commodities prices around the world are making life difficult for electronics recyclers, especially those struggling to get rid of toxic materials from obsolete television sets.
The result: Old TVs being dumped in the trash or on the side of the road and e-recycling companies improperly disposing of them, including a Kentucky company caught last year burying old TVs and other electronics devices in a 10-foot-deep hole in a field. And that is bad news for the environment.
The global slump in commodities also is challenging governments and companies involved in recycling, especially those involved in electronics. For example, West Virginia last month became the first state in the nation to overturn a ban on dumping e-waste in landfills.
"We want to promote recycling the best we can," James Young, executive director of the Kanawha County Solid Waste Authority in West Virginia, told NBC News. "But when it becomes such a burden, we can’t expect municipalities to foot the bill."
Meanwhile, companies that used to recycle televisions for free, including Best Buy, are now charging customers to haul them away.
Many electronic devices contain toxic substances such as lead, mercury, beryllium and cadmium, and recycling them is difficult and costly even when commodities prices are high. (Yes, that includes the iPhone, which is why Apple developed Liam, a robot that efficiently takes apart old iPhones for recycling.)
Legacy TVs with bulky and heavy cathode ray tubes (CRTs) pose a special problem. In the past, their glass tubes, which contain on average 6 pounds of lead, could be melted down to make new CRTs.
But people have largely abandoned CRT sets for LED and plasma televisions, which don't contain lead. That means there is very weak demand for the lead-filled glass. Low prices for commodities such as gold and copper also make stripping the old sets for raw materials unprofitable.
This makes it crucial to find reputable E-waste recyclers to handle your old electronics for recycling. Southern California has a flood of electronic recycling drives at local shopping centers. Most of these events are glorified panhandling. You are dropping off old stuff to the equivalent of a person walking around pulling cans out of trash cans. A lot of these recyclers just simply take the stuff that is worth money and recycle them with legitimate recycling companies then dump the rest at the dump. This is not responsible recycling! The best way to recycle your old electronics is to contact an actual e-waste company such as TNR Group Inc.
At TNR Group Inc., we are the premier data destruction and E-waste recycling company in Southern California. With over 15 years of experience, we have the reputation and connections to properly handle and recycle your old equipment. None of our stuff is sent to landfills as we value transparency and sustainability. We service the Inland Empire, San Diego, Orange County and Los Angeles county areas. TO learn more about our services available, click HERE