Better TV is coming, but are you ready for it?

The danger inside your old set
Beyond the hassle for consumers is the potential flood of poisons that could be unleashed on the environment.

High-definition digital televisions were one of the most popular Christmas gifts this year. In many homes, they replaced older traditional sets. Getting rid of them is a problem, because analog TVs contain lead, a highly hazardous material used to protect viewers from X-rays generated while the tube is in operation.

“Electronics go in the landfill,” said Susan Carmichael, director of the Clean City Commission in Montgomery, Ala. “Where else are you going to put them?”

But lead that makes it into a landfill can contaminate soil and groundwater. And there’s a lot of lead in a traditional TV set — on average, 4 pounds of it, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

“It’s not easy at all,” said Francisco Torres of Resale Resource, a recycler in Austin, Texas. “I mean, you’ve got the glass compounds, the lead, all this stuff has to be done in an environmentally safe way.”

Too many TVs; too little time
At the Terrace Heights landfill in Yakima, Wash., officials say they want to keep lead out of the wastewater, but they don’t have the resources to sort out the hazardous items.

“We get about 720 tons of garbage every day at this landfill,” said Mikal Heintz, the landfill’s coordinator. “Through the Christmas holiday, it’s even more, and we don’t have the manpower to go through everything.”

The hazard poses especially tough problems for charities that get inundated with donated TVs around the holidays.

"After February 17, ’09, there’s not going to be a signal, and you are going to have a converter box or a cable in order to use the television,” said Jerry Davis, president and chief executive of Goodwill Industries of Central Texas.

“Everybody is going to be dumping them as we get closer and closer,” Davis said. But “every pound we get of television costs us 17 cents to recycle.”

Goodwill is still taking working TVs, Davis said, but it is posting notes telling customers of the coming switch.

And while services are springing up to safely recycle old TVs and their waste materials, they come at a price. Fees can range from $3 to $35 per set, plus a transportation charge for pickup service.

MORE FROM TECH AND GADGETS

Tech and gadgets Section Front

Cool gifts for shutterbugs Netbook decision: Windows XP or 7 Starter? Real-life high school musical smackdown! Court orders Microsoft to stop selling Word Teen gets plea deal in Facebook sex scam The Grio: HP's face-tracking webcams aren't 'racist' 'Invisible bracelet' for emergency health alerts? Lavish gadgets for those with rich taste Is facial recognition software discriminatory? Terrific tech gifts for $200 or less Tech and gadgets Section Front   Add Tech and gadgets headlines to your news reader: