After touring a cathode ray tube (CRT) glass recycling facility in late November, Whitman cited glass recycler Envirocycle Inc., Hallstead, Pa., CRT maker Techneglas Inc., Columbus, Ohio, and several electronics products makers for their efforts.
The companies have taken part in a project called eCycle, a program that encourages consumers, municipalities, retailers and electronics manufacturers to share in the overall responsibility of recycling or properly disposing of obsolete consumer electronic products.
To take a look at how some of the equipment collected is recycled, Whitman toured Envirocycle’s Hallstead, Pa., facility. Envirocycle refurbishes and resells computer equipment and also recycles CRT glass in a closed loop system. In its fifteen-year history, Envirocycle has recycled more than 135,000 tons of CRT glass for reuse in the manufacturing of new glassware.
Techneglas Inc., a maker of television glass, consumes some of the recycled glass. The wholly owned subsidiary of Nippon Electric Glass (NEG) of Japan employs more than 2,000 people at three facilities in Columbus and Perrysburg, Ohio, and Pittston, Pa. The company supplies 70% of the glass NEG sells to the NAFTA market.
The eCycle program has collected much more than monitors and TVs, and has received considerable support from electronics manufacturers, including Panasonic, Sharp and Sony, many of whom are members of the Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA), Arlington, Va.
Panasonic has worked along with Techneglas and Envirocycle to develop the infrastructure for recycling discarded CRTs, according to Panasonic’s David Thompson. During 2002, Techneglas, Panasonic, and Envirocycle joined forces to develop both a successful CRT cullet glass recycling process and a production method that would maximize the percentage of CRT cullet used to manufacture new CRT glass parts, says Thompson, who is the director of the company’s corporate environmental department.
“By working closely with government agencies and recycling companies, Panasonic has helped develop a model for recycling electronic products that makes the most efficient use of our resources while protecting the environment,” he remarks.