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AMBI [sound of outdoor recycling event underneath opening narration and throughout opening scene]
NARR: On Saturday morning at the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island Larry Lee sat in his brother in law's truck. He was there to drop off his 10-year-old projection TV. It was big. Just like Lee. He loved watching the History channel on it's wide screen. But he had to downsize when he moved to a cramped apartment:
TAPE 1 [LARRY LEE, RECYCLER]: It's space limited. So I got a wall unit with a smaller TV, but I still had this. (:07)
He said he felt recycling his TV would be better than just throwing it away.
TAPE 2 [LARRY LEE, RECYCLER]: "When this came up I says you know let's do it the right way." (:04)
NARR: Recycling is the right way to dispose of more than just TVs. Pretty much anything you might buy at Best Buy or the Apple store is dangerous if thrown away:
TAPE 3 [ADRIANA Kontovrakis, DEPT. OF SANITATION] "TVs, monitors, computers, computer peripherals . . . (:04)
NARR: That's Adriana Kontovrakis, a director at the city's Department of Sanitation. She says you may even be carrying something hazardous around in your pocket:
TAPE 4 [ADRIANA Kontovrakis, DEPT. OF SANITATION] " . . . and cellphones they can contain different heavy metals. When they're not recycled there is the possibility of materials, when they are being processed--either through landfill or incineration--of getting out into the environment." (:09)
NARR: In other words, if you throw away your electronic waste, toxic metals can leach out into the ground and water. In New York City, trash commonly goes to a Newark, N.J. incinerator. Kate Sindig, a spokesperson for the National Resources Defense Council, a non-profit that pushed the city to pass the bill, says after its burned prevailing winds carry the waste right back to Manhattan:
TAPE 11 [KATE SINDIG, NRDC SPOKESPERSON] "So we're literally breathing the electronics that we're throwing in the trash right now." (:06)
And that's the way it will likely remain until the law goes into effect. The city council estimates that less than ten percent of all electronics containing these elements are recycled. Starting next July, consumers and businesses won't have a choice. They will have to recycle their electronics or face a $100 fine. And the company that makes your next TV must also provide a way to take back your old one. Or face a daily find. For the actual recycling process, they might contract with a company like WeRecycle.
AMBI [sound of outdoor recycling event underneath] (:01)
NARR: That's the firm the city contracted to recycle all the items turned in at the event where Larry Lee turned in his TV. And that's where his TV is headed this afternoon. After it's loaded onto a pallet,
AMBI [sound of loader] (:01)
NARR: wrapped tightly in plastic,
AMBI [sound of master wrap] (:01)
NARR: and driven north,
AMBI [sound of truck] (:01)
NARR: when it begins it's second life. WeRecycle's Westchester processing facility is clean and cavernous. It's filled with stacks of electronics. They're wrapped in plastic, like spider's silk around a future meal. Dave Smith, the general manager for Northeast Operations, says very few items are reused intact. Most are stripped down. WeRecycle sends the parts to other processors to reclaim the raw materials.
TAPE 7 [DAVE SMITH, WeRECYCLE] "So that's the key part of recycling. We keep it out of the waste stream and solid waste stream, we recycle it, we break it down into it's various components." (:08)
NARR: Two workers take apart Larry Lee's TV. They use hammers and a power drill to strip off the plywood shell.
AMBI [sound of hammers and power drill for (:01) then go underneath]
NARR: Inside they find circuit boards, copper wiring, and cathode ray tubes. These emit the light that form the TV images. They are also very toxic:
TAPE 9 [DAVE SMITH, WeRECYCLE] "The mercury, the cadmium, the lead is often in the tube." (:05)
NARR: Smith says the company will send the leaded glass, metals like copper and gold and shredded circuit boards from the TV to a smelter in Canada. The Iron and steel metals and wood are recycled locally in New York and CT. The city paid WeRecycle about $14,000 for the electronics they collected over one weekend. That's a cost that under the city's law the manufacturers will have to at least partly absorb. Parker Brugge, a spokesperson for the Consumer Electronics Association, said that manufacturers MIGHT NOT pass that cost onto consumers:
TAPE 10 [PARKER BRUGGE, Consumer Electronics Association] There are constant pressures and competition that drives the price down so the assumption that manufacturers will simply be able to add a certain cost to the production of a television and pass that cost onto consumers is not necessarily true. (:13)
So no matter who absorbs the cost, RECYCLE your electronic waste, or it's going to cost you. Damage to the environment, or a $100 fine.
Michelle Stockman, Columbia Radio News.