From Green Right Now Reports
LG Electronics USA, a leading provider of flat-panel HDTVs to the lodging industry, said it will partner with Waste Management Inc. on the first recycling program for hotel operators to responsibly dispose of outdated television sets and computer monitors.
In 2010 alone, hundreds of hotels are expected to upgrade thousands of rooms with energy-efficient flat-panel digital TVs, which will displace older analog picture tube TVs. To support this growing trend, LG Electronics said it will offer environmentally conscious hotel, motel and resort operators a convenient, cost-effective opportunity for recycling the obsolete hotel TVs.
Under this new program planned for launch in 2010, LG Electronics would facilitate the recycling process through Waste Management’s subsidiary WM Recycle America LLC. In addition to offering the TV and monitor-recycling program, LG would assist hoteliers in working with WM to recycle the packaging from any new LG flat-panel HDTVs and computer monitors being installed in their properties.
The executive director of the National Center for Electronics Recycling, Jason Linnell, called the program “a significant new development” in the e-waste arena. “Most voluntary and state-mandated efforts across the country have been focused on consumer recycling efforts,” he said in a statement. “So, when you think of the millions of analog TVs being replaced in hotels across the country, this approach is particularly noteworthy. We urge hotel operators to take advantage of these kinds of opportunities.”
The program will leverage Waste Management’s national network of over 200 recycling centers throughout the United States. The hotel TVs and computer monitors collected under this program will be processed in an environmentally responsible manner at one of four regionally designated Waste Management recycling facilities that are ISO 14001 and 9001 certified to protect the local environment in those communities along with the people handling this waste.
