How Your Old TV Is Recycled

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Deep inside a warehouse in north Charlotte is a kind of electronics graveyard. Broken computers, laptops, keyboards and lots of TVs. There workers at a company called Computel tear apart old TV sets to recycle whatever they can. Owner Brett Rinehart said there is a lot that can be reused.

“We take them apart its old fashioned manual labor. We take screwdrivers, take the plastic, separate all the metal, copper, circuit boards,” Rinehart said.

The tube is biggest concern. It contains lead and is harmful if it goes in landfill because it could get into drinking water. Computel sends the tubes off to a company in Ohio that will use them to make new TVs.

Computel gets TVs from the Mecklenburg County recycling centers, and other sources. Rinehart said they recycled 2,500 sets in 2007; sets that otherwise could have gone into landfills around Charlotte.

“Years ago we didn’t know you were not supposed to throw your TVs, with all the lead, into the landfills,” Rinehart said.

But now we do know. And making the simple choice to recycle can keep junk out of the ground.

The EPA says Americans threw away two million tons of electronic trash in 2005. Only 15-percent was recycled.

To learn how you can recycle your television, log on to mygreenelectronics.org.