GREAT NEWS!........NAHHHWE KEEP UPDATING OUR APPLIANCES BUT WHAT HAPPENS TO THE STUFF WE PUT IN THE BIN??? Every day I see old TUBE TV's and other electronic items on the side of the road and that's just in my own neighbourhood! It's up to us the consumers to put on the pressure . Manufactures and consumers alike need to be conscious of the fact that we are just throwing old technology with reusable and toxic parts into a hole in the ground. Yes that's right all that usefull and toxic material is being buried. TV's for example are loaded with copper, lead , mercury ,plastic and precious metals. So think twice about that hard garbage collection that happens twice a year,it all goes into a hole in the ground and it doesn't go away. Out of the Trilloins of dollars that are made by electronics manufactures you could say that almost none of that money made goes into taking back the old stuff and reusing the recycleable parts. I've done a little investigating and there are 2 places that I know in SYDNEY that do recycle your old TV gear and electronics like computers and mobile phones. I have also contacted my local council RANDWICK and apparently there is a once a year pickup that is not a part of the hard rubbish clean up. There are plans to set up a place so you can take your old electronics for recycling but that may never happen. We the ratepayers and enviromentally conscious must put pressure on councils and local Government to make it possble.
Unfortunately you will also need to deliver any electronics you would like to see recycled out to these companies yourselves. Stay tuned
An unwelcome byproduct of the rise in popularity and tumbling in price of large screen plasma and LCD TVs is the steep rise in the amount of older TVs ending up in landfill sites, with the toxic materials contained within them causing an environmental problem.
In the U.S., Sony has moved to address this problem by encouraging consumers to recycle and dispose of televisions and other electronic devices in an environmentally sound manner through it’s newly created national recycling program for consumer electronics. The Sony Take Back Recycling Program allows consumers to recycle all Sony-branded products for no fee at recycling drop-off centres throughout the U.S.
It is the first national recycling initiative in the U.S. to involve both a major electronics manufacturer and a national waste management company.
Sony and WM Recycle America are working towards the goal of having enough drop-off locations in all 50 states so there is a recycling centre within 20 miles of 95 percent of the U.S. population.
"Providing the highest level of service and support doesn’t stop once a purchase is made. We believe it is Sony’s responsibility to provide customers with end-of-life solutions for all the products we manufacture,” said Stan Glasgow, president and chief operating officer of Sony Electronics. “Through the Take Back Recycling Program, our customers will know that their Sony products will be recycled in an environmentally responsible manner.”
Glasgow said that by making the recycling of Sony products easy and convenient, the company expects to reach its goal of recycling one pound of old consumer electronics equipment for every pound of new products sold.
As the technology industry sees continued growth, the amount of electronic waste is also increasing. A study by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency showed that in 2005 used or unwanted electronics amounted to about 1.9 to 2.2 million tons. Of that, some 1.5 to 1.9 million tons was primarily discarded in landfills, and only 345,000 to 379,000 tons were recycled.
By recycling old electronics products, useful materials - such as glass, plastic and metals - can be collected and re-used in the manufacture of other products. Recycling not only minimises the amount of waste disposed, it also minimises the extraction of new raw materials from the earth and resources required for processing, saving energy and reducing greenhouse gases in the process.
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