Sony Assists Wilmington in Recycling Effort

Wilmington, N.C. is anticipating the aftermath of the nation“s DTV transition and its potential to render obsolete legions of analog television sets. Five Wilmington TV stations will permanently power down their analog transmitters Sept. 8 to give federal regulators a chance to analyze the impact of the nationwide shutdown scheduled for Feb. 17, 2009.

WECT-TV, the NBC affiliate in Wilmington owned by Raycom Media, is one of the five volunteers. The station featured a TV recycling story on its Web siteâ?¦

“â?¦If you just dump that old TV in the trash, it has the potential to do damage to the environment. About a million tons of old phones, computers and TVs ended up in landfills last year.”

WECT instructs people to instead recycle TV sets and other electronics at a Sept. 6 event sponsored by Sony and Waste Management of Houston, Texas. Those two companies are teaming up for recycling events across the country, including one in Boston Sept. 13. The event is part of a Sony program offering free recycling for its consumer products.