Audio Video News

Will all those lead-filled analog TVs end up on the trash heap, where they'll pollute ground water? Not so, says the Consumer Electronics Association. A new study shows most of the obsolete sets will find loving new homes.

This environmentally positive information comes in the form of a survey entitled "Trends in Consumer Electronics Afterlife." It shows that consumers will part with 15 million TVs after the DTV transition is completed next February. Of those sets, 95 percent will be recycled, reused, given away, or sold.

The survey says 48 percent of analog-TV households will continue using their existing sets, adding a federally subsidized set-top box to convert the new digital broadcast signals to old-style analog.

TV recycling was up 30 percent in 2007 versus 2005. "A full 87 percent of consumers say it's important to recycle their CE devices," says Tim Herbert, CEA's senior director of market research.