A few years ago, the digital conversion of television began a
flood of unwanted tube-based TV sets.
More recently, the mass adoption of mobile smartphones has
relegated millions of older cellphones to junk drawers or the
junkyard.
In Arizona, there's nothing illegal about dumping such items in
the trash, though at least half the states have passed laws
regulating electronic waste.
But you can help protect the environment - and in some cases help
the less fortunate - by recycling your obsolete electronics.
Modern electronics carry a rogue's list of potentially hazardous
materials, including lead, mercury, cadmium, beryllium, chromium and
brominated flame retardants.
But only 27 percent of discarded consumer electronics was
recycled in 2010, the most recent year for which the Environmental
Protection Agency has data.
One of the biggest problems today are cathode-ray tube TV sets,
which contain toxins including several pounds of lead in their glass
but are costly to recycle. An estimated 83 percent of the 28 million
TVs disposed of in 2010 were trashed rather than recycled, according
to the EPA.
Many places that recycle computers and other electronics for
scrap don't take tube TV sets - particularly those over 32 inches in
screen size - and those that do generally charge a fee.
And it's getting harder to find a place to recycle an old TV, fee
or not.
"A lot of places won't even take them, especially the large
screens with the big cabinets," said Ruben Vejar, general manager of
the nonprofit Rise Equipment Recycling Center.
For example, retail giant Best Buy has an extensive recycling
program but won't take tube TV sets with screens bigger than 32
inches.
The Rise center takes all kinds of TVs, charging $10 each to help
cover the cost of recycling.
While it's legal to throw a TV set in the trash, the city
discourages it and works with Rise to recycle them, said Andrew
Quigley, assistant city manager.
Besides refurbishing and recycling electronics, Rise provides
vocational rehabilitation training and employment to clients of its
parent nonprofit, COPE Community Services, which provides services
for people with substance-abuse problems, mental illness or other
behavioral or health issues.
Vejar said Rise refurbishes computers with Pentium 4 processors
or better, with multi-core processors, and recycles the rest using a
certified Arizona recycling firm. Computer hard drives are wiped
clean of data following a Defense Department secure standard, Vejar
said.
Flat-panel Televisions
Though the volume of flat-panel TVs discarded is much lower than
old cathode-ray tube sets, they can also be hazardous and should be
recycled properly, experts say.
For example, most liquid-crystal display sets are illuminated by
mercury lamps; plasma TVs don't use such lamps but may contain
mercury, lead and other toxic substances.
Mobile phones
The smartphone revolution has helped create a tsunami of unwanted
basic cellphones, and only 11 percent of the estimated 152 million
phones discarded in 2010 were recycled, the EPA says.
Most wireless phone carriers will take old phones for reuse or
recycling, but you can also donate them to charities, such as a
domestic-violence center like Emerge! in Tucson, which give them to
