Brainerd Dispatch: News | Brainerd, Minnesota | Brainerd Lakes Area News on brainerddispatch.com

Home > NEWS >

Thursday, January 8, 2009

E-mail

Forums

How to handle 'retired' TV sets

By RENEE RICHARDSON

Senior Reporter

The digital TV conversion deadline is fast approaching and while that doesn't necessarily mean out with the old, there are options to recycle those old sets.

If residents decide to upgrade and take those old sets to the Crow Wing County Sanitary Landfill, John Maattala, of Crow Wing County Solid Waste Management, said the county is ready for them. Maattala took his own TV purchased in 1993 to the landfill after purchasing an upgrade the day after Thanksgiving.

More than 20 million households receive their TV shows using only an antenna, while about 15 million households have at least one TV not connected to cable or satellite, according to the National Association of Broadcasters.

John Maattala, of Crow Wing County Solid Waste Management, put a computer monitor into an electronics recycling collection box at the county landfill this week. Maattala said he recently saw a big flat screen TV among the recyclables for the first time. The Feb. 17 digital television conversion may bring in a few more models this winter, although analog sets will continue to work with the help of a converter box. Brainerd Dispatch/Steve Kohls
» Purchase reprints of this photo.

Anyone who gets their TV signal over the air - whether through a rabbit ear antenna on top of the set or an antenna on the roof - will need to buy a digital-to-analog converter box in order to continue getting a signal. Subscribers to satellite, cable or pay TV service will continue to receive a broadcast television signal without the need for a converter box.

The county recycles the electronics residents no longer need or want. Consumers pay $5 per unit for a TV, computer with monitor and hard drive, printer, DVD player or VCR to drop off the electronics at the landfill and annual county coupons mailed to households can be used to defray that cost.

Maattala said between March and November, the county shipped out a semi-tractor trailer load of electronics every three weeks. The electronics are taken to a Minneapolis facility and broken down into their parts and metals for recycling. The electronic pieces come in the form of giant old console televisions, stereo consoles with turntables and eight-track tape decks, and even televisions in metal cabinets that may date to the 1950s.

And the electronics just scratch the surface of items the county recycles. Last year in Brainerd alone, the county picked up 11,649 gallons of used oil at the drop-off facility by the Brainerd Fire Department.

"Just think if we didn't have those sites where would that oil be going," Maattala said.

The county recycled 39,070 gallons of used oil from nine drop-off sites in various area communities in 2008. The Household Hazardous Waste unit at the landfill took care of 3,553 gallons of latex paint and 2,318 gallons of oil-based paint along with other hazardous liquids.

Mattresses dropped off at the landfill have a reduced fee of $6 compared to $11.70 if they can be recycled, meaning they are not soiled or wet. The mattresses go to a Goodwill Industries facility in Duluth to be recycled down to steel springs, cotton or foam and outer fabric. Aluminum cans are 100 percent recyclable and a can may go from a crushed discard to a fresh beverage holder in six weeks. The most desirable plastics are those with a neck and the numbers 1 or 2 printed on the container. Bins allowing consumers to co-mingle recycling adds to the convenience.

Popular Mechanics investigated whether recycling was worth it in the magazine's December issue and reported Americans haul 82 million tons of trash to recycling centers each year. The magazine looked to debunk recycling myths and explained how items were sorted. It looked at the higher energy cost to develop raw materials than to recycle existing products. In its verdict, Popular Mechanics stated: "Most telling, though, is a recent study that found that about 90 percent of the material going to landfills has a market value. Given today's economy, we won't keep burying that value for long."

In 1991 Crow Wing County recycled about 4,464 tons of material. By 2006, that number of recycled material rose to 48,057 tons.

"People want to recycle," Maattala said. "I think it's worthwhile. I think the public would demand us to recycle. They are demanding it now."

The county is updating a list of 15 recycling facilities and services, hours of operation and types of material accepted and will have that available online on the county Web site at www.co.crow-wing.mn.us and look for the link to waste management.

RENEE RICHARDSON may be reached at renee.richardson@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5852.

Note: Comments are not edited and don't represent the views of The Brainerd Dispatch. Please read our posting rules in the terms of service policy. To report a post that may be inappropriate, click the triangle alert icon.