Free Pallets of TVs

[Sam Cogley]

Originally Posted by dr*audio

Sounds like a great idea for any country that uses the NTSC system. I don't know if any poor countries use it.

There was a worldwide broadcast standards map posted in a similar thread a few weeks ago. There are at least some "third world" countries on the NTSC standard.

[kx250rider]

Originally Posted by Sam Cogley

There was a worldwide broadcast standards map posted in a similar thread a few weeks ago. There are at least some "third world" countries on the NTSC standard.

I was thinking of countries with no TV at all... Tribal parts of Africa, etc. That way, they can adopt NTSC if they get enough of our hand-me-down equipment. Only issue would be power... I bet they're mostly on 50-cycle 220, if they have distributed power at all.

Charles

[zenith2134]

That would be a great thing, if third-world countries could re-use the castaway gear of the developed world. They'd get TV and there would be less hazardous waste pollution. I have heard the same about power distribution though. There are plenty of areas with no power at all.

[John James]

Now why would we wish television on the poor people of the world? Don't they have enough problems as it is?

[Sansui Louie]

I bet you could build something really unique with those. Like an entire wall of TV's. Maybe an entire dwelling built out of TV's. Weirder things have been done.

[zenithfan1]

Originally Posted by Sansui Louie

I bet you could build something really unique with those. Like an entire wall of TV's. Maybe an entire dwelling built out of TV's. Weirder things have been done.

LOL! Then fire 'em all up and give people X-rays when they come and go to make sure they aren't stealing. Or.....send in the mother in law

[Robert Grant]

Originally Posted by dr*audio

Sounds like a great idea for any country that uses the NTSC system. I don't know if any poor countries use it.

Partial list:
El Savador
Nicaragua
Cuba
Dominican Republic
Mexico
(thru 12 June 2009): United States of America.

[vinyldavid]

Originally Posted by John James

Now why would we wish television on the poor people of the world? Don't they have enough problems as it is?

I gotta agree with you. Most modern TV is just worthless.

[Mark W.]

Originally Posted by Phil Nelson

Reminds me of the last recyclling/haz-waste event in our town, which happens twice a year. It is illegal in the Seattle area to throw a TV, computer monitor, etc., out for the landfill. You have to pay $20 to dispose of the average TV, more for a big projection set, etc.

At the spot where I dropped off a computer monitor, they had stacks of 1980s/etc. TVs, some already stacked on pallets and shrink wrapped.

Some (maybe all) of this stuff gets shipped to "recyclers" in China, who are children wearing flip-flops, crouching in a smoking wasteland bashing things up with hammers. Metal is salvaged -- some of it anyway. The rest, probably including all plastic cases, is tossed into heaps and burned. I read a scary magazine article about this a while ago. Sounds more like an eco-disaster than true recycling.

Some European countries have a better scheme, which requires manufacturers to take back their old products for responsible recycling.

Phil Nelson

Not necessarily there is a place in Mollala OR. That recycles electronic's The take the metals out the valuable indivual parts are also sorted out the Plastic's if recyclable are ground to a sawdust like grain. The plastic and stuff which can't be recycled are thrown in a 45 foot semi trailer and twice a week taken to a huge modern landfill.

I know I hauled that trailer a hundred times or more under contract.

The business was run by a Russian American and a Japanese American and their families. Most of the workers from what I could tell were of Mexican decent.

[jedo1507r]

Originally Posted by John James

Now why would we wish television on the poor people of the world? Don't they have enough problems as it is?

Yeah, wishing shows like The Bachelor (or The Bachelorette) and Pop Idol on more potential viewers is asking for trouble.

Top Gear, on the other hand...