MAHONING VALLEY Broken TV sets get poor reception from recyclers

There's not much money in recycling old TVs, so most get thrown away.
YOUNGSTOWN -- At one time, it brought Lucy's laughter and Homer's hilarity into your home.
Now, the screen has gone black.
So, where does your television go when it dies? Officials at the Mahoning County and Geauga-Trumbull County solid waste districts say area televisions simply are set on the curb and shipped off with the trash.
No glamour. No glory. And, often, no opportunity for a second chance.
The cost of the labor-intensive process of picking apart televisions to be recycled is too much for most private companies to handle, said Greg Kovalchick, compliance manager at the Geauga-Trumbull district.
The cost of recycling televisions is about $10 to $15 a set, says an assessment by the Minnesota Office of Environmental Assistance compiled in July.
"It's market-driven," Kovalchick said of recycling TVs. "It's what hits your wallet."
Lead danger: In Ohio, little market exists for TV recycling, said Cristie Cook, Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District program officer. In August, Cook's office sponsored a computer roundup in the Cleveland area, prompted by a statewide ban in Massachusetts on the disposing of computers and televisions in landfills.
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and other environmental groups say the ban was catalyzed by the dangers cathode ray tubes pose.
A TV or computer monitor component that contains about 5 to 8 pounds of lead can release toxins, which, in larger doses, can cause neurological defects among other serious illnesses.
Salvation Army: As flat-screen TVs become more popular, there likely will be a greater influx of abandoned televisions, said Jim Coyle, manager of the Salvation Army Thrift Store on Youngstown Road, Warren.
In fact, Coyle's workplace is one of the few in the area that accepts old televisions for resale, though the Salvation Army still won't fix broken televisions. "After we calm down from being suckered into taking a broken TV, we get rid of it," he said.
The fate of rundown televisions might be changing, however.
Jail program: While neither area waste district accepts the sets for recycling, Mahoning County does take computers, whose monitors are close kin of TV sets, and ships them off to jail. Literally.
Within the past year, the Computers for Education Program, based in Marysville, Ohio, teamed up with the state prison system to have inmates pick over monitors for recyclable metals or reusable components.
The program, backed by the OEPA, could expand to include televisions, said Tim Berlekamp, director of the Mahoning County district.
"When [the computer program] gets off the ground, the TVs will get going," he said. "It's one of the processes we have to walk into before we run into."
Until then, area televisions will have to be kicked to the curb or resurrected by area repairmen.
"Before, when you bought a TV set, there was a repairman called out, and the set lasted 20 years," Kovalchick said. "Now, when [a television] is five, six, seven, or eight years old, you throw it away. If they can be recycled, they should be recycled."