Environmentalists Target TV for Takeback and Legislation
After years of campaigning to make producers responsible for obsolete computers, environmental groups are focusing on TVs, citing the February 2009 analog shutoff and CEA data that project 30 million digital TV sales in 2007. The Electronics TakeBack Coalition wants consumers to press TV makers to “take responsibility for their products once they are obsolete,” said Barbara Kyle, the group’s national coordinator. The group will lobby state legislators for measures addressing the impending flow of analog TVs into the waste stream, she said.
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The coalition, formerly the Computer Takeback Campaign, aligns 15 environmental groups. Only Sony has a program for taking back old TVs that it made, said Kyle. “Our campaign is aimed at the TV companies who are making billions in selling the new stuff to take some responsibility for the old stuff,” she said. Besides leaning on manufacturers by appealing to consumers, the group will press for state laws on junk analog TVs, she said, adding that not all companies will emulate Sony. “Legislation absolutely has to happen to make sure that every one is doing this equally,” Kyle said.
Kyle dismissed industry claims that access to converter boxes will keep analog TVs from clogging the waste stream. Even with little awareness of the digital transition, Americans will buy 30 million TVs this year, she said, saying consumers are drawn to high-definition programming, and “converter boxes don’t do HD.” Changing “consumer behavior” will force analog sets “out the door or… into the garage.” Five states have enacted e-waste laws this year, she said, and many others are working on bills for next year. “This whole TV situation is part of what creates an emergency for them [states], because people understand that there are some changes in the consumer behavior despite what the CEA says about the converter box.”
Calling the environmental campaign a “scare tactic,” CEA Environmental Counsel Parker Brugge said his group’s research shows that people getting rid of old TVs give about 60 percent of them to family, friends, or charity. Nothing suggests a shift in how people discard old TVs, he said. “If the TV is still working, our research shows, consumers are going to keep them.” There’s no basis for expecting a “tsunami” of trashed TVs as result of the transition, he said. Other TV makers may or may not emulate Sony, he said, and CEA wants a “national solution… This should be addressed by Congress.” The issue can’t be addressed state by state, he added.
Waste TVs have always been a problem and the transition will aggravate it, said Scott Cassel, executive director the Product Stewardship Institute, which advises local and state governments on recycling. The issue will become “more urgent and more of a crisis” if states don’t deal with it now, he added. Some states have delayed action on junk TVs because of the split among manufacturers on financing recycling, he said. There’s tremendous interest in many states in passing e-waste legislation in 2008, he added.
State legislators are talking more about junk TVs as they confront the “gorilla in the room,” said Adam Schafer, executive director of the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators. Legislative efforts have focused on computers, but he expects “amendments” next year to pending e-waste bills to deal with TVs, he said. - - Dinesh Kumar