United States – Engineering Professor Fu Zhao of Purdue University in the US state of Indiana is leading an effort to develop an efficient process for recycling LCD TVs and computer monitors. The researchers are creating tools designed to complete the task in less than five minutes without breaking the units’ long, thin light tubes.
Recycling LCDs currently entails a high labour cost because mercury in the back of LCDs requires proper disposal. Without recycling, LCDs are incinerated using expensive emission control equipment or are discarded in landfills where their potentially hazardous materials may contaminate the soil and water. The units also contain gold and indium tin oxide, which are valuable and scarce resources but are difficult to extract.
The project is funded by a US$ 15 000 grant from the US Environmental Protection Agency’s P3 project. The researchers will present their design at the National Sustainable Design Expo to compete for a P3 award of US$ 90 000.
The tools will be used to recycle the university’s own monitors. ‘While Purdue currently sends its scrap to a recycler for disposal, these tools should make it easier for the recycler to handle the waste that Purdue generates,’ says the university’s Adam Lagro. Researcher Dave Zelinka notes that ‘what we learn here will be able to be applied quickly to help with enhancing current recycling techniques and mitigate material that goes to a landfill’.
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