TVs pile up at Wake County landfills

Raleigh, N.C. — With an impending deadline for the switch to digital broadcasting, more people have dropped off their old television sets at Wake County's multimaterials centers.

In November, the county collected 28,000 pounds of TVs – 100 times more than at the same time last year.

At the North Wake Multi-Material Recycling Facility at 9029 Deponie Drive in Raleigh, televisions have been piling up.

“People are deciding that it is probably time now and convenient to move out of the old technology and into the new technology,” Environmental Services Director Thomas Esqueda said.

Many people are also throwing away their analog TVs because of the upcoming digital transition. On Feb. 17, analog televisions will not work without a converter box.

Televisions are collected Monday-Saturday, 8 a.m.-4 p.m. at the North Wake facility and the South Wake Municipal Solid Waste Landfill, at 6300 Old Smithfield Rd in Apex.

The county ships the sets to a Greensboro plant for recycling.

“There are a lot of hazardous materials that do need to be recycled. It’s a good thing they are doing that. We don’t want pollution at our landfills, that’s for sure,” recycler Jim Carlisle said.

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And I'm sure many of these TV's were replaced out of ignorance of what the Switch Over really means. If you have Cable or Satellite, you don't have to do anything. You only need to make a change if you use Rabbit Ears or a Rooftop Antenna.