Sedona Recycles suspends collection of CRT devices

There is a monster hiding in the back of your closet or garage and it has a dark secret. This monster is called a cathode ray tube (CRT) and it hides inside your old televisions and computer monitors. These devices are the ones with big backs, versus flat screen panels, and until a few years ago they were the ones we all had. At Sedona Recycles, we have searched high and low for an environmentally sound ways to recycle CRTs and have run into a dead end every time.

When flat panels appeared in the marketplace, technology moved so quickly that it left the previous technology behind with no game plan for what to do with all these CRT devices. Everyone had the old school tube television. That was the only technology available. The old big back TV was a staple in every house and then, with the advent of computers, we all ended up with the big back monitor as well. Fast-forward to current times and we are all making the switch to flat panel televisions and monitors.

So what does this mean for all those old televisions and monitors? It is estimated that in the next ten years, 6.2 million tons of these devices will find their way from garages, closets, and storage units into the waste stream. Recycling these old CRTs was not a problem in the past because the leaded glass was used to make new CRTs. But no one in the U.S. is making new CRTs and so the glass-to-glass loop is closed permanently.

CRTs are still being manufactured in India but their days are numbered, as the demand is no longer there. The single remaining CRT plant in India is slated to close in 2016/2017. So as the flood of old CRTs continues to hit the waste stream, what can we do? Unfortunately, there just is not any good answer to this one except the most unacceptable of all alternatives – the landfill. Every day, people come to the recycling center with these outdated TVs and monitors and sadly we do not have a good answer for what they can do with them.

You would think that these big, bulky devices filled with lead and other toxic materials would not be allowed in the landfill, but that is only true in the 20 states that have banned them. Arizona is not one of those states and there are no regulations to keep these materials out of the trash. So here we are without a plan to handle the fastest growing segment of solid waste on the planet. Each man, woman and child is expected on average to discard 12 lbs. of electronic waste this year. There currently is no comprehensive nationwide program to deal with this looming flood of e-waste. The statistics show that only 15% of all electronic devices are recycled and it is easy to see why; there just is not a real system in place prepared for the deluge.

There is, however, a bright spot – in California. Like the little pig in the fairy tale, the one who built his house of bricks saw the big bad wolf coming and prepared. No twigs and straw for them. They added a fee to all electronics purchased in the state and that fee funded the recycling of these items when their usefulness was over. This course of action created jobs, and lots of them, and averted an environmental disaster. It was a classic win-win. They turned a problem into jobs.

I urge everyone to take responsibility for what lurks in your closets and garages and demand that the people who make these devices and sell them take accountability for this waste and help us all to do the right thing. Until then, Sedona Recycles has suspended our collection of CRT devices until a real recycling option is available. We will continue to search for alternatives to the landfill. In the meantime, hang in there. After all, these devices have been in closets and garages for this long; hopefully they won’t have to be for much longer.

If at all possible, find a new home for your unwanted CRTs and other electronics. There must be someone out there that would love to have a television or monitor. Try Craigslist or Freecycle and push for the manufacturers of these devices to take responsibility for the entire life cycles of the products they make. Locally, Dell, in partnership with Goodwill, takes back all computer-related equipment – that includes CRT monitors – free of charge. As far as the televisions go, we will continue trying to find the appropriate recycling venue.

Please contact us at Sedona Recycles at (928) 204-1185 for more information on electronics recycling. Or visit our website at www.sedonarecycles.org.