The Refinishing Touch Blog

At The Refinishing Touch we modify thousands of armoires each year as our hospitality clients replace CRT televisions with new flat screen LCD and plasma alternatives.

This presents an interesting challenge - what happens to old TVs? Well, in many cases they could become part of the 3 million tons of electronic waste generated by the US each year.

Yes, 3 million tons – the hurdle here is that older TVs and computers are difficult to recycle because they contain toxic materials and often require special pickups or arrangements. Currently only 13.6 percent of televisions are recycled properly, while the remaining 86.4 percent occupy landfills.

As a company committed to using environmentally sound practices, The Refinishing Touch has launched a television recycling program to combat this growing e-waste problem. The new program recycles e-waste in compliance with OSHA and EPA industry standards, along with all local, state, and federal laws and regulations.

Our project is already delivering significant returns: a global hotel chain enlisted TRT to recycle TVs at two of its locations, Alexandria and Williamsburg, Virginia. At these we’ve modified over 330 armoires to accommodate new televisions, and recycled all the existing TVs that had been phased out.

With such a large stake in environmentally refinishing the furniture that holds televisions, it’s only natural for TRT to take an interest in the safe recycling of televisions as well. If we can lead the way with environmentally safe and sustainable practices in armoire modifications, we can and should do the same with the accompanying TVs.

For more information about our new television recycling program, visit http://www.armoireconversion.com/tv_recycling.html.