Home page » TVs

Search TVs:

Refine search for TVs

The other major facility that Panasonic wanted to show me was its METEC (Matsushita Eco Technology Centre) recycling facility. Recycling is taken very seriously in Japan, whereby all the manufacturers of electrical appliances are responsible for their eco friendly disposal. By law TVs, washing machines, air conditioners and refrigerators all need to be recyclable. Basically at least 50 per cent of the total weight of TVs, washing machines and refrigerators must be recycled, while for air conditioners that rises to 60 per cent.

The CRT television recycling takes some care, since the front glass and the funnel glass have to be recycled separately, due to the lead content in the funnel glass. The CRT is heated up to soften the bonding strip holding the two glass sections together. Both sections are then separated and recycled individually.

Both sections of glass are thoroughly cleaned and then crushed into cullets - small pieces of glass, around 5cm square. The crushed glass is then sold onto a glass manufacturer to make new products.

Washing machines are thrown into a crusher and broken up into small pieces. All these pieces are then sorted using air jets and magnets to separate all the metal from the plastic. This separation process is repeated several times to ensure that nothing is sorted into the wrong section.


The different metals are then sold on to be reused in other products, while polypropylene is separated out from the recycled plastics. The recycled plastics are then used to manufacture new washing machine frames.

Add your comment

© 2003-2008 TrustedReviews | About Us | Contact Us | Legal | Privacy | RSS