U.S. switch to digital TV raises specter of toxic dumping of old sets

TV sales in the U.S. have been climbing as prices continue to fall, meaning that a growing number of old sets are ending up in the trash. Environmental groups want manufacturers to offer free e-waste collection and recycling of old equipment. (Julien Jourdes for The New York Times )

SAN FRANCISCO: Exposé videos shot by monitor groups show what happens to most electronic goods at the end of their working lives: Shipped to India, China, Nigeria and other developing countries, they are deconstructed by "backyard recyclers" who hammer, chop, grind, chip and heat them into a potent, toxic cocktail.

Working with no protection, they are exposed to materials like lead, mercury, cadmium and brominated flame retardants that can cause intellectual impairment and damage almost every organ and system in the human body, including the brain, nerves and bones.

People of all ages are employed in this work, from young children to grandparents, earning as little as $1.50 a day, according to Basel Action Network, a group that campaigns against recycling abuses. The parts that they cannot sell are burned in vast mounds, further contaminating their air, soil and water. The United Nations estimates that 20 million to 50 million tons of electronic waste are generated worldwide each  year.

The Basel network and similar groups, including the Electronics TakeBack Coalition in the United States and Greenpeace, warn that a U.S. law ending analog TV transmission in February 2009 - enforcing a switch to exclusively digital reception - could lead to a megadumping of television sets.

The transition will primarily affect the 11 percent to 20 percent of households that rely solely on an antenna to receive analog broadcasts, according to a September 2007 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. An additional 5 percent to 27 percent of cable and satellite households have extra televisions that use antennas.

Another problem is that some U.S. recyclers charge to dispose of electronics, which can be a deterrent to recycling. Nine states have passed producer-responsibility laws, requiring manufacturers to offer free e-waste collection and recycling, and 13 more are considering similar legislation. Several European countries also have such laws.

In the absence of U.S. legislation, the TakeBack coalition is working to persuade manufacturers to accept returns of their products for free and recycle them voluntarily. Several computer companies have agreed to do so; but so far, Sony is the only television manufacturer to adopt such a policy.

"Given that these companies' sales numbers are off the charts," Kyle said, "they need to be taking some responsibility for the problem that they are indirectly creating by selling all this new stuff."

Sony started its program in September 2007 with the slogan, "We make it, we take it." Although the program is currently an expense, Sony hopes to control costs by setting up its own infrastructure and collecting enough e-waste to achieve economies of scale.

Sony has partnered with Waste Management, a U.S. waste and recycling company based in Houston. At its own and at partners' facilities, electronics are broken down into their constituent parts - glass, plastic, metal, circuit boards - and sent to partners that can process the components. Sony has signed a commitment to responsible electronic waste recycling, drafted by the TakeBack coalition, and is encouraging Waste Management to do so, too. Waste Management adopted its own internal "pledge standard" in 2002.

Responsible recyclers employ independent auditors to prove their credibility. Auditing is expensive, but underpins their reputation.

Kelley Keogh, an environmental, health and safety consultant, audits the partner companies used by Waste Management. QMI-SAI Global, a U.S. management systems analyst, audits such partners for Intercon.

"People that we do business with, which are all really big companies, just get that warm, fuzzy feeling knowing that it's been handled by someone as reputable as QMI," Brundage said.

That, in turn, underpins the company's commercial success. "It's a profitable business," Brundage said. "I sleep real well at night, knowing that I'm not landfilling a percentage of what comes into this facility, like everyone else is."

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