Selfsufficientish.com

So, on Sky News this morning, they've been running a story about a TV set that they tracked after they recycled it at their local recycling centre - in Hampshire.....

Basically, they disabled the set so that it was of no use to anyone. Now legally because it is non-functional, it cannot be taken out of the country - so.... as they'd also put a tracking unit in, they watched with interest as the set was moved around the country several times & then was on a boat out to Nigeria.....

Once it emerged in Nigeria, a reporter working with Greenpeace bought the set back & had it in his van, checking that it was the same set....

BUT... had they NOT bought it, it probably would have ended up on a HUGE scrapheap of appliances... a lot of these appliances are then stripped by local scavengers, who are playing around with carcinogenic dioxins found inside these appliances.

Hampshire Council are said to be 'investigating'..... So - when we have large appliances such as TV sets - should we be recycling? And to what cost?

Just because it's not in the UK any longer, should we even worry about it?

These aren't MY questions, by the way, and Sky are running this story for most of the day, so try & catch it if you can.... uncomfortable watching indeed.

Interesting. There was a really good issue of the National Geographic on recycling that included this article on high-tech waste. Basically just goes overeseas where it is dismantled by children

Time to reiterate REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE - in that order!

Jeez it's depressing isn't it ? It makes you wonder why any of us bother.

I heard about this kind of thing a while back - that children in other countries end up doing the recycling in poor conditions, and I wasn't really comfortable with that so cut right back on electrical appliances in my life. So now, no tv, no toaster, no kettle, no games consoles, no dvd player/video player.

Actually life is a lot nicer without those things and my electric bill is less.

Clara is right about the 3 R's, it definitely REDUCE first.

Given all of this, do you think it´s better to recycle (knowing that it is probably going to end up with some poor kid in a developing country being exposed to something nasty) or put it in landfill (thereby making a mess in our own backyard).

I have 3 or 4 old mobiles that I need to dispose of, they don´t work, no one is going to consider repairing them. What would you do?

Clara,

In the UK there are several charities that recycle old mobiles, could you get them over here for one of us to send them on? I think Oxfam take them & I know the Woodland Trust do.

MW

One would assume that someone like Oxfam wouldn´t do something like send them to be recycled in a dodgy fashion wouldn´t you? I have friends coming in april, perhaps I could ask them to take them back.

Thanks for that.