Consumer Electronics Assoc. releases study on CRT’s
EXTRACT: A new survey by the USAS Based Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) suggests there are approximately 3.5 million tons of CRT TVs and computers still in U.S. households.
That figure, based off of telephone interviews with 1,023 adults throughout the country. Less than half of CEA study respondents — 46 percent — said they still used or stored at least one CRT device. About 41 percent said they had recycled a CRT device.
Arriving at an accurate estimate of how many CRTs remain in the U.S. has emerged as an important point for the host of CRT recycling ventures starting to enter the market. Most industry players have operated under the assumption that nearly 400,000 tons of CRT glass – with glass accounting for about 62 percent of the overall weight of a CRT device – will need processing in the U.S. each year for the next decade.
If CEA’s new figure is more accurate, approximately 2.17 million tons of CRT glass remains for processing in the U.S., or 217,000 tons every year. “This is still an awful lot of CRTs,” Linnell noted.
Speaking at the ISRI Convention last week in Las Vegas, CEA’s vice president of environmental affairs, Walter Alcorn, echoed that sentiment. “There are still a lot of CRTs out there. … Six billion pounds of CRT TVs and 1 billion pounds of CRT monitors,” Alcorn said. ~ By Bobby Elliott, E-Scrap News