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AND NOW, TV MOUNTAINS

By Andrew Porter and Tim Webb, The Business

10 March 2002 -- After the fridge mountain, get ready for the television mountain. A growing backlog of disused TV sets and computer monitors is about to give the government another environmental headache. This follows the escalating fiasco that has seen vast numbers of disused refrigerators awaiting destruction since a new European law came into force in January. Another European directive, set for this summer, will classify unwanted and discarded TVs and computer monitors as toxic waste, forcing the government to look at how it gets rid of them. Environmentalists and local councils say the government needs to ensure there are proper recycling facilities available. As with fridges, there is currently no means of disposing of the TVs. Britain does not yet have the technology to dispose of toxic elements in the cathode ray tubes in the screens. The fridge crisis began earlier this year. New rules mean that Britain now has to dispose of fridges to ensure that CFC chemicals that could harm the ozone layer are not released into the atmosphere. As first revealed by The Business, a war is being fought in Whitehall over who will pay for the disposal. The Treasury is furious with environment minister Michael Meacher for signing the regulation without the means to ditch the fridges. Meacher, tipped for demotion in a summer reshuffle, has attracted the attention of Cabinet progress-chaser Lord Macdonald, who wants to know why such a regulation was agreed when it was clear the cost would be disproportionate. The Department of Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs has told the Treasury the clean-up could cost as much as GBP 75m this year. Local authorities are being forced to stockpile old fridges in fields, car parks and vacant warehouses. The EU Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive is set to go through the European Parliament this summer. It requires the separation of toxic metal elements and the glass in cathode ray tubes. Only NuLife Glass, a Manchester-based recycling company, so far claims to have developed a disposal method. Councils fear they may have to pick up the bill for disposal. But the government will also be under pressure to find a solution that does not disadvantage UK white-goods retailers, who are being asked to ensure old fridges are disposed of.

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