Do cathode ray tubes contain mercury tv#

Do cathode ray tubes contain mercury tv#

It involves separating the lead so it can be used in other products such as car batteries - an expensive step that wasn't necessary when TV manufacturers wanted CRT glass. “You have to do it the right way.”ĭoing it the right way isn’t easy. “It’s not a can you can throw in the recycling bin,” said Mike Satter, vice president of electronics recycling firm OceanTech.

Municipalities could spend money collecting TV sets from consumers, because private companies were willing to pay enough to offset the cost. In 2011, when gold prices were sky-high, recycling companies were happy to buy the old TVs. That stockpile means that even though the technology is obsolete, demand for recycling these TVs will continue for years to come. Not only can CRT TVs last for 20 to 30 years, they are also extremely heavy, so people tend to procrastinate when it comes to getting rid of them. 'It's a long-lasting technology,' said Jason Linnell, executive director of the ERCC.

In 2015, Americans had around 5 billion pounds worth of CRT TVs in their homes, according to a survey from the Electronics Recycling Coordination Clearinghouse (ERCC), a pro-recycling nonprofit organization. There are millions of old CRT televisions tucked away in basements and spare bedrooms across America. Low prices for commodities such as gold and copper also make stripping the old sets for raw materials unprofitable.Įarth Day: New Study Predicts an Extra Week of Bad Ozone Every Year That means there is very weak demand for the lead-filled glass. In the past, their glass tubes, which contain on average 6 pounds of lead, could be melted down to make new CRTs.īut people have largely abandoned CRT sets for LED and plasma televisions, which don't contain lead.

Legacy TVs with bulky and heavy cathode ray tubes (CRTs) pose a special problem.