Climate Change

Digital Changeover Creating Environmental Hazard

BOSTON (WBZ) ― With the changeover to digital TV coming next winter, millions of people have found the perfect excuse to get rid of their old set, but that's creating an environmental disaster no one expected.

In front of a Brookline colonial, where they were once proud purchases, a couple of TVs are tossed to the curb. They're no longer high tech -- not even low-tech -- they're no-tech.

So it's off to the town dump.

Americans are expected to toss more than 80 million TVs in the trash over the next year.

Folks dealing with next year's digital deadline are buying brand new digital TVs rather than much cheaper converters.

Ed Gilbert of the Brookline DPW is a busy man. "We're getting 200-250 a month," he says.

And the picture isn't pretty – tons of discarded TVs -- and they are toxic. We are talking about lead, mercury, bromine and cadmium. The question becomes -- What do you do with it?

It's called e-waste, and it's becoming a bigger issue by the day. "We don't have landfill space, so it's easy for these (TVs) to get tossed out and end up a dangerous toxin in the environment."

Representative Frank Smizik is the chair of the Committee on the Environment. He's trying to pass a law, which would shift the cost of disposing of TVs to the companies that make them.

Right now, cities and towns are footing the bill.

Of course, every fee gets passed on to you. Under this bill, the town would be reimbursed. "I think this is very important because most towns are facing overrides right now... And so any kind of savings would be very important," explains Smizik.

And again, the money is only half the issue. Having a TV with a cathode ray tube packed in four pounds of lead sitting in the woods is a whole other headache.

It certainly gives a whole new twist to buying that shiny new flat screen.

Sure, kicking your old TV to the curb won't hurt its feelings, but it could hurt the environment.

You don't have to buy a new digital TV for this changeover, but if you are getting rid of an old TV set, call your town or city hall to find out how to dispose of it the right way.

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