Today is the day millions of televisions become useless, and as a result millions of these will be thrown away, creating a toxic hazard that will leach lead and mercury and other poisons into the soil.
The Federal Government made the rule that forced the switch to digital from analog, thus making tons and tons of televisions with toxic materials obsolete (without the converter boxes). I have read that this had a great deal to do with big business profiting from the shift. Some manufacturers offered a voluntary "takeback" program to recycle the toxic shit in TVs, while others made no such effort (see link below for a related article on GreenBiz.com).
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2009/06/12/digital-conversion-tons-e-waste
It is clear if the government is going to force this change that creates tons of toxic waste, it ought to be responsible for the recycling and appropriate management of this waste.
In the meantime, if people are going to enjoy the priviledge of technological gadgets, it is their responsibility to do their best to appropriately dispose of these items in a manner that will not harm the environment.
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