The Refinishing Touch Blog

Last week, we drafted a post about the switchover to the digital signal and the impact on America's estimated 219 million television sets, of which 2.8 million households are completely unready for the transition.

As a business, we know from the number of armoire conversions we've completed for hospitality clients in the past 3 years and the thousands of units we've transformed and saved from the landfill, that this is much broader than a consumer problem – with every guest room in America's hotels, casinos and motels housing a television set, this is a real challenge for the hospitality industry.

Although the challenge to prepare for the switchover may have been different for these groups, there is one common problem now for those that have decided to invest in new digital sets – just how to disperse of old television sets easily, cost-effectively and of course in an environmentally-friendly way. It's no surprise to learn that television sets are not built with the environment in mind: even just the cathode ray tubes contain several pounds of highly toxic lead. Recycling is essential to prevent this from entering the environment.

TV manufacturers are making moves in the right direction. From Sony and LG which have recycling programs managed by recycling firm Waste Management, to group efforts supported by the likes of Panasonic, Sharp and Toshiba, there is a consensus in the industry that there need to be recycling programs in place. It's estimated that at present around 20 percent of televisions are recycled – the rest heading to landfills. So with the switchover, there could be a wave of abandoned TVs.

We're going to be conducting a survey among consumers and the hospitality industry to see if they are disposing of analog television sets, and just where they think the responsibility should lie: with them as the owners - or with manufacturers, local government, federal government or retailers. Or even the commercial TV networks.

We'll be linking this survey to our website over the next few weeks, so if you'd like to participate please keep reading. We'll be sharing our results in the next month or so.

Meanwhile, if you are getting rid of your old set, make sure you are recycling it and that you do so through a socially-responsive organization.

Labels: Analogue Switch, digital TV, Hospitality, Recycle