Makers Seek to Recycle TV Sets
As California considers imposing a recycling fee on new computers and televisions to combat a worsening electronic waste problem, three of America’s biggest television manufacturers are stepping up efforts to devise a private-sector solution.
In response to legislation pending here and in other states, Panasonic, Sharp and Sony are teaming up with municipalities in California, Utah and Idaho this fall--and offering to pay to recycle their products. Participating cities include Los Angeles and San Diego, and although local governments are free to impose a small surcharge for collection services, the brunt of the costs will be borne by the television companies.
With the temporary Electronics Recycling Shared Responsibility Program, the manufacturers hope to demonstrate that they are capable of doing their part to safely dispose of televisions and computer monitors carrying their brand names without what they characterize as heavy-handed government fees and requirements. The companies, which have been experimenting with similar programs in the Northeast and Midwest, are also hoping to learn what it would cost them to finance a national recycling effort.
“Around the world and increasingly in the U.S., we are facing potential mandates to collect our products and recycle them” or face new government recycling fees, said David Thompson, who manages Panasonic’s American environmental division in New Jersey. “What we are trying to do is to work with other manufacturers and figure out what the real challenges are.”
The move by the television makers comes amid growing political interest in addressing the nation’s electronic waste problem.
In California alone, studies have shown that more than 10,000 televisions and computer monitors are being discarded every day, each containing 4 to 8 pounds of lead and other potentially toxic materials. Television makers dispute those figures, citing data from their own recycling experiments, but acknowledge that the numbers are substantial.
Recognizing the environmental threat, the state last year banned landfills from accepting any more monitors and televisions, but there is still no alternative for getting rid of them.
Much of America’s electronic waste now makes its way to Asia, where computers and TV sets are crudely taken apart and scrapped for parts, polluting ground water and creating public health problems, environmentalists say.
Legislation by Democratic state Sens. Byron Sher of Stanford and Gloria Romero of Los Angeles would impose a fee of up to $30 on every new television and computer monitor sold to pay for recycling. The bills, SB 1523 and SB 1619, would also require labels on computers warning consumers of the hazardous materials inside. Similar measures have been introduced this year in several states and in Congress by Rep. Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena).
Although it has generated strong support from cities and environmental groups, the California legislation has garnered stiff opposition from computer makers and electronic industry trade groups, and its future is in limbo.
Nonetheless, the television makers say they realize that they will soon face fees or have to take a role in recycling their products and that they want to be part of the solution.
