This image and the image at the top of this article show ECS Refining's processing facility in a suburb of Dallas, Texas. ECS Refining is one of the few recycling centers in the United States that properly deal with CRT glass. Image: Cooper Neill for VICE Magazine/Motherboard
CRTs cost more to recycle than the commodities inside them can be sold for, meaning that old TVs have a net negative recycling value. And new guidelines for the amount of lead exposure that is safe for humans have cut down on the total number of possible uses for leaded glass (ECS's workers have their blood tested for lead content quarterly).Maybe you took your old TV to a community e-waste collections center after you upgraded to a flat-screen. If the collection center was responsible, maybe it sent that television to ECS. If it wasn't, maybe that TV eventually ended up at Closed Loop.***Closed Loop took taxpayer money to not recycle your old TV
Inspection image of one of Closed Loop's Columbus warehouses, taken by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
Closed Loop began accumulating CRTs from all over the country in hopes of one day feeding them to its furnace. It served as a downstream recycler, meaning that, for a fee, it took TVs and computer monitors from other recycling companies that collected but didn't have the specialization to process CRTs. For years, daily truckloads of CRTs arrived at Closed Loop's facilities in Columbus, Ohio, and Phoenix, Arizona. The company recycled only a fraction of a percent of the televisions it collected.The company's landlords have been told that it will cost tens of million dollars to safely dispose of the glass
An Ohio EPA letter to Closed Loop sent in April 2016 declared that the company could no longer be considered to be "recycling." Document acquired using Ohio Freedom of Information Act.
One of Closed Loop's Ohio facilities. Image: Ohio EPA
Image: Environmental Protection Agency
Image: Ohio EPA
Image: Ohio EPA
An Environmental Protection Agency presentation shows that abandoned CRT warehouses are common. Image: EPA
That companies were still willingly paying Closed Loop to take their unwanted CRTs speaks to the desperation many recyclers have to wash their hands of the responsibility of recycling them. The situation is further complicated because many of Closed Loop's customers were companies that participated in state-run recycling programs, meaning Closed Loop took taxpayer money to not recycle your old TV.Millions of televisions at Closed Loop and other warehouses around the country still must be safely disposed of, somehow
The Ohio EPA wrote in inspection documents that Closed Loop did not properly handle hazardous material. Image: Ohio EPA
Image: Ohio EPA
If there is a silver lining here, it's that leaded glass can be recycled if you're willing to pay for it. Many recyclers in the US send their processed CRT glass to a Spanish company called Camacho, which uses it as part of the filler in ceramic tile. An Indian company called Videocon is the last remaining company in the world still producing new CRTs using recycled glass. And leaded glass can be used as a flux at mining facilities or in lead-acid batteries, so there are options for companies like ECS.No one is sure who is going to pay to clean up Closed Loop's facilities. Some want the televisions traced back upstream to the recycling centers where consumers originally dropped them off. But this solution will bankrupt more companies and could eventually push the cost back onto the original generator of the waste: us.Most experts I spoke to believe that we won't see Closed Loop–scale stockpiling of CRTs in the future. There simply aren't enough old TVs left to have another Closed Loop. What should scare us, though, is that newer electronics are more difficult to recycle than CRTs, not easier. In the quest to make thinner devices, batteries—which catch fire if put through a recycler's shredder—are glued down and are hard for recyclers to remove; they're also used in an increasing number of electronics.Months after my visit to ECS in Dallas, there's one image I can't forget: a woman, standing in front of a washing machine–sized cardboard box filled with small black fitness trackers. She pulled one out, put it on her workstation, and cracked it open. She separated the battery, set it aside, and pulled out another. She does this thousands of times a week. If she doesn't, who will?Correction: An earlier version of this article included a quote that said there are dangerous gases inside CRT tubes. In fact, CRT tubes form a vacuum. Fracturing that vacuum is dangerous and can lead to injury if not done correctly.Want more Motherboard? Subscribe to our weekly Radio Motherboard podcast on iTunes or wherever you get your pods.What should scare us is that newer electronics are more difficult to recycle than CRTs, not easier
