Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy

Accidental Deliberations: On obsolescence

I think Stephen Harper’s Made in Canada solution to pollution had better include a plan for what to do with approximately 35 million discarded Canadian television sets in the next 5 years. A wiser solution may be to offer analog TV signals for another 15 years, while producing only LCD analog/digital TVs in that time. LCDs consume 66% less electricity than traditional CRT screens according to SaskPower. According to my guess, they contain less toxic lead as well.

By 2009, the FCC [the U.S. Federal Communications Commission] will have mandated the complete change from analog to digital television. All the older TVs have cathode-ray tubes that contain maybe five to 10 pounds of lead. Television enjoys a 95 per cent market penetration in the United States, which would mean that, conservatively, there are about 300 million of them out there in living rooms and dens and basements. And they are about to be chucked. The sheer amount of toxic lead that is about to enter the waste stream is simply going to overwhelm it — there are not enough container ships to send these obsolete televisions off to Asia where they can be broken up safely.

Have you considered what would happen if everyone threw out their TVs? Where would they all go? If you put them into the landfill, lead gets into the groundwater you’re going to drink. Other toxic metals will also leach into the soil, and if they get burned — into the air as well.

Businesses already face the problem of what to do with their aging computer CRT monitor fleets. Tens of thousands of monitors are thrown away every year in Canada, and that’s a conservative estimate. Do you feel confident that they are mostly being dismantled and the toxins either stored or reused safely? I’m not, since I can’t name a national organization devoted to facillitating recycling of computer and TV monitors — and I work in the computer industry even.

Pressure your MP to do something about this impending disaster caused by Sony and other manufacturing and TV lobby industries. Consider supporting a party that would do something significant to solve planned obsolenscence, such as the Green Party. Wouldn’t it be nice to buy a computer this year, and still be able to get new replacement parts for it in 2 years? Or how about you buy a car, and it works for 200,000km without any serious or expensive problems to repair? There are often solutions to our repair bill woes, but they are being withheld from us because we aren’t demanding them loudly enough. And our habitat is suffering with us as a result.