Digital TV is killing the analog star (Source: Zaphod at Wikimedia Commons)
In a couple of months, television
signals will be going digital. Congress
is requiring the switch. In February, if
you have an analog TV with rabbit ears,
it’ll be useless unless you get a converter
box. And even before the official transition,
people have been buying up new digital TVs.
Rebecca Williams reports the switch to DTV
has some people worried about the growing
pile of TV trash:
Transcript
In a couple of months, television
signals will be going digital. Congress
is requiring the switch. In February, if
you have an analog TV with rabbit ears,
it’ll be useless unless you get a converter
box. And even before the official transition,
people have been buying up new digital TVs.
Rebecca Williams reports the switch to DTV
has some people worried about the growing
pile of TV trash:
(sound of guy playing guitar hero)
William Borg says he’s really bad at Guitar Hero. So instead, we’re
watching one of his teenage customers play the game on a huge flat screen
digital TV.
“And this is another reason customers are after those high definition TVs
because you can really maximize the overall picture and sound quality.”
There’s not an analog TV in the place. Best Buy doesn’t sell them anymore.
You can’t buy them anywhere actually, except maybe at a thrift store.
Digital TV is killing the analog star.
“I think the end of analog TV is here.”
Megan Pollock is with the Consumer Electronics Association. She
represents TV makers and big box retailers.
“Just like record players some people will just fall in love and keep them for
as long as they can but I think in 5 to 10 years it’ll be very, very hard to find
one in anyone’s home.”
That’s right – analog TVs are gonna be museum pieces, or, more likely,
filling up landfills.
Megan Pollock says sales for digital TVs go up every year. She expects 36
million to sell next year.
In February, all broadcasters are required to switch over to digital TV. If
you have one of those old TVs with rabbit ears or an antenna, you’ll have to
get a converter box. If you’re hooked up to cable or satellite, you’re fine.
You don’t have to buy a new TV.
But TV recyclers say they’re seeing more people getting rid of perfectly
good analog TVs anyway.
Linda McFarland runs a TV and computer recycling business.
“We’re really gonna start seeing these in droves.”
We’re standing in front of seven foot tall stacks of old TVs.
McFarland says of all electronics, TVs are the least valuable. And the TVs
are full of toxic stuff. Especially lead in the cathode ray tubes.
Most of the time we export our TV waste. It ends up in Asia or Africa.
There, everyone from grandparents to little kids use acid or open flames to
melt the circuit boards to get to the tiny bits of gold and silver.
“Children are working on top of these electronic heaps and breathing
cyanide acid.”
Linda McFarland says it’s easy for recyclers in the US to make deals with
importers in other countries. They sneak the TV waste in along with much
more valuable computer parts.
“You might just stick it on containers and tell the marketplace that’s buying
from you I’ll give you two good containers for every container I give you.”
McFarland says that probably happens nine out of ten times. She wants new
laws to force recyclers to take care of TVs correctly.
That’s at the end of a TV’s life. Others want to start at the beginning. They
want TV manufacturers to do more.
Barbara Kyle is with the Electronics TakeBack Coalition. She says it’s not
just the lead in old TVs, many new digital TVs have toxic mercury in them –
and that’s hard to remove too.
“I think of the LCD TV as the poster child as to how this industry is still not
thinking about how to design with the end of life of products in mind. It’s
clearly not even in their work plan.”
But – she says some companies are getting better about taking back old TVs
for recycling. She says Sony, Samsung and LG already have good
programs. Others are just beginning.
Kyle says, whatever you do, don’t throw your old TV in the trash. She says
it’ll take some work, but you can find a responsible recycler – one that
doesn’t export waste to developing countries.
For The Environment Report, I’m Rebecca Williams.
