Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
TV dumping soars with digital switchover
This month thousands of homeowners in the UK are dumping old TVs and switching to new sets as the digital switchover sweeps through the country. Veolia Environmental Services has seen a rise of up to 43% in parts of the UK from residents recycling old analogue boxes.
In Birmingham, Veolia saw an increase of around 2,222 extra TVs per month being deposited at Household Waste Recycling Centres over the three month period in the lead up to the switchover, and a similar pattern is expected in London as it completes the switchover today.
But did you know that up to 95% of a TV can be recycled!
- Glass from the screen can be transformed into bunker sand for golf courses
- Plastic casing that houses the components can be melted into new electronic items, such as new TVs, mobile phones and computers
- Copper around the electron gun can be recycled into cabling for home appliances including toasters, kettles and lighting
- Degaussing wire that sits around the front of the screen is high grade iron that can to be recycled into metal goods, such as nails, nuts and bolts
Tom Spaul, Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director at Veolia Environmental Services said “We have seen a domino effect across the country with a rise of people recycling TV sets due to the digital switchover. We want to remind everyone it is important that they bring down their old TVs to a local site so they can be recycled into something new. Maybe even a new television!”
Other increases have been detected by Veolia in areas such as Nottinghamshire, Merseyside and Sheffield where, on each occasion, we experienced increases above 20% for the three months following switchover.
Londoners threw away 18,000 tonnes of electrical waste in the past 12 months, a significant proportion of which ended up in landfill , but with the majority of TV parts able to be recycled, this is an ideal opportunity to take your old TV set to a Household Waste Recycling Centre.
From Veolia's website
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Liz on
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This comes as absolutely no surprise. Wearing my Cassandra weeds I predicted as much back in 2009. I was also right to suggest that the Harringay Passage would be a favoured dumping point, having spotted a couple on my walk to school this week.
As Mr Huxley once observed: "The most distressing thing that can happen to a prophet is to be proved wrong. The next most distressing thing is to be proved right."
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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Will be nice to see an economy-boosting increase in the sale of new digital sets
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Permalink Reply by StephenBln on
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Yes, South Korea and Japan will be very happy..
It will only help the UK economy if you have something to sell to them in return..
I won't mention the those biscuits again..
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Biscuits? Did someone mention biscuits?
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Permalink Reply by Christopher Fowler on
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TV sets and old computer monitors, the cathode ray tube ones, are dumped around here all the time. I suspect the dumping of both is as much to do with wanting flat screen displays (which, in fairness, do take up less room; though, in the case of the TVs, they use a lot more power) as in the need to switch to digital TV. Most TVs which are analogue can receive a digital signal via a set-top box. But the waste is really appalling. Apart from the fact that a lot of this stuff still works, and could be passed on for free to people who can't afford new stuff, as the note above from Veolia says, most of the components of an old TV or monitor can be re-cycled.
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This is depressing, Christopher. Because in my own regular strolls round our local streets I've noticed far far fewer abandoned and smashed-up TVs. I'd assumed that the message was getting across - that Veolia collect this stuff for free.
So I wonder what's gone wrong in your neck of the woods?
Trying to be more positive, I'd welcome any links or information from HoL members about successful publicity schemes elsewhere which have got more people recycling; or at least arranging for collection of old monitors. And which Haringey could learn from.
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Alan - It's not just TVs or other electronic equipment being dumped (or put in skips), it's masses of household goods. There are always skips around here (near junction of St Anne's and Woodlands Park Road, and the stuff dumped in them, which could be re-used, but which will just go to landfill, is appalling. Stuff that is waste to a builder (wood offcuts, for example) can be very useful to someone doing a bit of home DIY, putting up shelves or something like that. Unfortunately, we live in a very wasteful society. At the same time, there are so many people in Haringey who would welcome second-hand goods. I know that there are organisations that collect stuff, repair or check it, and pass it on, but they seem to be barely scratching the surface.
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Thanks Christopher. Just on the specific topic raised by Hugh, I do see a distinction between stuff placed in a container; and something left on the street. The latter often gets smashed-up, so glass and circuit boards and other shards of metal and plastic are strewn about. A potential hazard - especially for small children, people with disabilities, and animals including household pets.
Which isn't in any way to ignore the general issue you've raised. On the contrary.
In fact I wish we'd had this discussion on HoL before the Wellcome Collection exhibition in Spring/Summer 2011 - Dirt: The filthy reality of everyday life. Did you visit it by any chance?
It took as a starting point an insight by anthropologist Mary Douglas that "dirt is matter out of place". And what you're raising is the next step-up from that - that recycling is waste transformed and recycled back into value - matter in one of the right places.
As you're rightly pointed out, a pavement or roadside skip is simply a very large rubbish "bin" with lots in it which someone will want and find a use for. We can think of it as just a convenient and handy receptacle for chucking stuff away. And that once this waste is removed it's "out of sight; out of mind" - someone else's problem. Expect we now realise that there's no such place as "outside". Globally it all remains "our" problem.
A pessimistic aspect is that most people haven't yet arrived at your insight. The optimistic bit is that you and many other people are posing the questions loudly and clearly.
Can I suggest you raise this directly with Veolia. And with Cllr Nilgun Canver - or whoever Claire Kober the "leader" selects to be "cabinet" councillor for the Environment for the coming municipal year.
(Tottenham Hale ward councillor until 2014)
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Apologies for the typo: "Expect we now realise" should be "Except . . ."
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Where do you get the idea that flatscreen TVs use a lot more power than CRTs ?
For the same screen size they are roughly the same. My LCD takes 131W: a similar size CRT is around 135 W. http://www.sust-it.net/energy_saving.php?id=16&uv=1&start=25
Otherwise I agree with you. Presumably when Veolia pick up abandoned sets they go to recycling ?
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John - You're right, my mistake. I was somehow mixing up digital/analogue TV with analogue radio receivers vs DAB radios (the DAB radios use more power).
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