One research team recovered polyvinyl alcohol from the computer screens, which can be used in medicine (Photo courtesy of the National Cancer Institute)
Some researchers want to recycle
a chemical in computer screens to
use it for a medical treatment.
Shawn Allee reports:
Transcript
Some researchers want to recycle
a chemical in computer screens to
use it for a medical treatment.
Shawn Allee reports:
Most LCD computer screens contain toxic mercury. The European Union will soon mandate those screens be recycled rather than thrown away.
There are other metals and chemicals in the LCD screens that are not dangerous.
Dr. Avtar Matharu is with Britain’s University of York.
His research team recovered polyvinyl alcohol from the computer screens.
It’s used in spongy pads that deliver medicine.
“We can take out Polyvinyl alcohol from the front and back of an LCD screen. We can take what effectively would be a waste resource and potentially use it in a medical application.”
Matharu says getting polyvinyl alcohol out of LCD screens is expensive compared to making it from crude oil, but he says it could be another reason to recycle rather than throw them into a landfill.
Molycorp's rare-earth mining pit in Mountain Pass, California. (Photo by Shawn Allee)
To cut water use, Molycorp's installed new waste water ponds and
recycling equipment. (Photo by Shawn Allee)
Beneath this 60-acre spot are 100 feet of mine tailings, which
include salts and other mining by-products. The site's being remediated and
capped with vegetation, to ensure water doesn't move contaminants underground.
It's part of Molycorp's plan to recover from waste water leaks during the 1990s. (Photo by Shawn Allee)
Politicians like to show off pictures of wind turbines, hybrid cars, and other green hi-tech.
The idea is to get more of that in America, and maybe even make more of it here. Shawn
Allee found there’s a chance all of this could be complicated by the supply of key green-
tech ingredients:
Transcript
Politicians like to show off pictures of wind turbines, hybrid cars, and other green hi-tech.
The idea is to get more of that in America, and maybe even make more of it here. Shawn
Allee found there’s a chance all of this could be complicated by the supply of key green-
tech ingredients:
I don’t know about you, but there’re a whole bunch of minerals I completely ignored in
high school chemistry.
Jack Lifton knows them by heart.
“… lanthenum, serium, neodymium…”
Lifton’s a market expert on these so-called ‘rare-earth’ minerals. And he says, even if you
haven’t heard of them, you might have them – even in your pocket.
“Without rare earths, we probably would not have portable computers and you
certainly wouldn’t have display screens today on anything – television or computer,
iPod, or iPhone, whatever.”
Rare earths make electronics light and they don’t need much power: just what wind
turbines and electric hybrid cars need.
There’s a problem in the rare-earth market, though. China’s the big supplier, but Lifton
says it might keep it’s rare-earth supplies for itself.
“In the next three or four years, you cannot make a device with a rare earth unless
it’s made in China and then the Chinese have made it very clear that their priorities
are to manufacture goods for their own consumer economy and keep the Chinese
employed.”
So, is the US gonna be left dry when it comes to green high tech? Well, there is a rare
earth mine in America, but it’s had some environmental problems.
The mine is trying to turn that around now.
Honan: “On the left is the overburden stock pile. Once you’ve seen one of those,
you’ve seen them all.”
Allee: “Big pile of rocks.”
Honan: “Big pile of rock.”
Mine manager Scott Honan’s driving me around the top of a mine in the middle of the
California desert.
He manages the mine for Molycorp. Honan’s showing me the mine’s waste water
ponds.
Honan: “Those two are fresh water.”
Allee: “Basically, you’re trying to recycle as much of this water as you can. Why is
that?”
Honan: “We have to confine all of our water activities on the site. We have to be
very efficient when we use water, we can’t afford to waste it.”
Gotta admit, this is not very sexy stuff, but Molycorp is crossing its fingers that
expensive water recycling and treatment investments pay off.
Molycorp uses water to process the rare-earth ore, and back in the 90s, the mining and
processing stopped for a while due to waste water leaks.
It’s desert, after all – and regulators didn’t want what little water there is contaminated by
a slurry of salts and mining byproducts.
Allee: “So where’re we heading, here?”
Honan: “The pit.”
Allee: “Is that what everyone calls it? ‘The Pit?’”
Honan: “Yeah. It’s about 55 acres if you look at the perimeter. From the top of the
high wall over there to the bottom, it’s about 500 feet.”
Honan says Molycorp will expand the mine in a few years – just in time for when China
might stop exporting rare-earths.
The company might be jumping a tad – regulators might clamp down on the operation if
Molycorp repeats some of its past water pollution mistakes.
Still…
“I think a lot of us at the mine have a big stake in the success of this operation going
forward. A lot of us feel it’s important for our country. What we produce here is
going to drive a lot of this energy efficient technology that people are anxious about.
It’s cool to be a part of that.”
And for Honan, what’s even cooler is that someone’s talking about building a wind farm
not too far from his mine.
Honan says it’d be awefully nice if his rare-earths are in those turbines.
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.
As electronic devices are becoming faster, smaller and cheaper, many consumers are opting to scrap their old, outdated computers and televisions for the latest technologies. But as a recent report shows, as people throw out these products, a new legacy of waste is piling up. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erika Johnson reports:
Transcript
As electronic devices are becoming faster, smaller and cheaper, many consumers are opting to
scrap their old, outdated computers and televisions for the latest technologies. But as a recent
report shows, as people throw out these products, a new legacy of waste is piling up. The Great
Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erika Johnson reports:
Electronic waste – or e-waste – is what ends up in landfills when people throw away electronic
devices such as computer monitors and television sets. The report by the Silicon Valley Toxics
Coalition tracked the amount of e-waste that ends up in landfills. Researchers found there’s more
e-waste than waste from beverage containers and disposable diapers. Electronic products can
threaten human health because they contain toxic heavy metals.
Sheila Davis headed up the Coalition’s report:
“People are starting to sit up and take notice and especially when you start having large volumes
of the material. So many states are taking notice. For example, California, Massachusetts,
Minnesota and Maine have all banned these products from landfills, e-waste from landfills.”
Yet Davis says many people in other states end up pitching their used electronics because many
recycling programs are often inconvenient and expensive.
But for now, Davis suggests people contact their local governments for more information on
where to take their used electronics.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Erika Johnson.
One research team recovered polyvinyl alcohol from the computer screens, which can be used in medicine (Photo courtesy of the National Cancer Institute)
