Electronic waste, or e-waste, dumping in developing countries such as Ghana reflects the worst of our “throw-away” society and our willingness to push our problems off on others. To read more about Ghana, please read this August 2008 article from The Ghanaian Times: ‘Stop Electronic Waste Dumping in Ghana!’
What are companies that produce TVs doing to protect people and planet? In 2001 the Electronics TakeBack Coalition, a national coalition of non-profit groups promoting green design and responsible recycling in the electronics industry, was established to study this and other questions. Take Back My TV is a campaign of the Coalition and in November 2008 the group started issuing a TV Takeback Report Card.
Here are the results on a scale of A through F:
A – None of the companies achieved this grade
B – Sony received a B-. “Sony was the first TV company to launch a national takeback program. They need a lot more collection sites to be convenient in many states, but we applaud Sony for its leadership on TV takeback.”
C – Samsung, LG, Wal-mart “LG and Samsung have national takeback programs. Wal-mart has recently partnered with Samsung to take back Wal-mart’s house branded TVs.”
D – Panasonic, Sharp, Toshiba, Best Buy “These manufacturers partner together in recycling under their MRM company. MRM has just started expanding beyond states which require recycling. Best Buy’s rating is for taking back its house brand TVs.”
F – Funai, Hitachi, JVC, Mitsubishi, Philips, Thomson, Vizio, Target, Sanyo “These companies have no voluntary takeback programs at all.”
Here is more about this initiative from the Take Back My TV website:
TV Recycling: A Slow Start With Digital Conversion Fast Approaching
Is the TV Industry Embracing Recycling?
This is our first TV Takeback Report Card. Only a little over a year ago, no TV company had a national takeback and recycling program, and the digital conversion was fast approaching. While most computer companies have been offering takeback for a few years now, the TV companies had no programs, and were busy lobbying against state laws requiring takeback.
Sony was the first TV manufacturer to launch a national program, in September 2007. LG and Samsung followed with programs in summer of 2008. Panasonic/Sharp/Toshiba, who partner their recycling efforts, rolled out plans for voluntary takeback efforts in some states in late October. We are also grading the three largest retailers of TVs, who also have house brands. On this report, we are grading them on their takeback efforts of their own house brands.
All new programs
Since these programs are all fairly new, the grades reflect that this industry is just getting started with its takeback and recycling efforts. While some companies do have national programs, none of them have fully developed networks of collection sites. Many have just a few sites to serve an entire state – far from adequate to make this convenient for consumers. Many use sites in industrial locations (at recycling sites), also not convenient. But we applaud these beginning efforts, and we look forward to the time when there is more coordination between the TV companies, the retailers and others for locating collection sites.
Almost no transparency or reporting
We are most disappointed in the lack of transparency about what these programs are actually doing. Many of our grading criteria have to do with their reporting on where the materials are going, how they are being handled, as a way of evaluating how responsibly they are handling their toxic materials. We believe that companies who are doing this right should be fully transparent about their vendors, their standards, and the ultimate destinations for these materials. When we don’t see full transparency, we have serious concerns that there is a reason for the silence.
We also are not seeing very clear reporting on goals for how much to collect and volumes reported. Since the programs are fairly new, we can understand reporting not being up to speed (although the companies could report on the volumes they are obligated to collect under state laws). But we think all of them should have goals for what they intend to collect.
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