Life-size television zombies sound more like a futuristic sci-fi plot than a campaign for efficient recycling of electronics.
But on Monday, activists from the Texas Campaign for the Environment, an environmental advocacy group, dressed as zombies with television sets as heads to protest the improper disposal of televisions in Austin.
When the switch to digital TV occurs in February 2009, citizens can purchase a converter box or a digital set. Many insubordinate sets will be incorrectly disposed of as their owners upgrade, the group said.
“The zombie TVs are meant to convey the idea that if we do not properly recycle or dispose of our old television sets, they will come back to haunt us,” said Lanni Ogle, office manager of the group and a participating zombie. “The metals and toxins don’t affect you as you watch the TV, but they do when you dispose it.”
Old CRT TV sets can contain between four and eight pounds of lead each, and some sets also contain mercury and other highly toxic chemicals, said Robin Schneider, executive director of the campaign.
“Millions of TVs go to landfills in this country,” Schneider said. “We are looking at a ticking time bomb of poison that could enter our drinking-water supply.”
The group released a “report card” during Monday’s event, evaluating 17 major television manufacturers.
TakeBack programs, which properly recycle television sets, were created to protect the environment and people’s safety by requiring “electronics manufacturers and brand owners to take full responsibility for the life cycle of their products,” according to the coalition’s Web site.
”Nine out of the 17 companies flunked,” Schneider said. “Most companies don’t even have a TakeBack program.”
The group plans to lead efforts to mandate recycling programs during the upcoming state legislative session.
“This report card is to make it clear and public what the manufacturers are doing with the TVs,” said Barbara Kyle, the national coordinator of the coalition. “Many of those low scores are because of insufficient disclosure about the processing of sets. It’s enough to have a program, but we want to see some data.”
Unethical electronic waste recyclers are also exporting disposed electronics and selling them to waste trade brokers. Most devices are sent to developing countries, disassembled in an unsafe manner and sold for the metal value on the black market, Kyle said.
“People are bashing stuff open or melting or cooking the electronics,” Kyle said. “People are literally being poisoned as they process our old computers or TVs.”
