TV Makers Get Abysmal Grades For E-Waste Recycling Programs

With just a few months before the digital TV conversion renders millions of sets obsolete (well, kind of), a group called the Electronics TakeBack Coalition is trying to shame major companies into some e-waste recycling initiative by giving them report card scores. Of all the companies surveyed, the highest score (B-) went to Sony, which launched the first national takeback program in 2007. More than half of everybody else got a big fat F for having absolutely nothing in place.

We’ve covered how serious the e-waste problem has gotten, especially for countries with less regulations and cheap, desperate labour available for the dangerous profession of e-waste sorting… such as China. TV take-back programs are probably rarer because people tend to replace them at a much slower rate than computers and mobile phones, but it can never be too soon to kick start one up–especially at a critical juncture like this one. Check out the site for both the report cards and a guide for recycling your TV when you’re ready to upgrade. [Take Back My TV]

(Flickr credit:Kevin Steele)