There's a right way, and a wrong way, to dispose of that soon to be obsolete TV set. Rural Rock County Constable Chuck Stephenson thinks he's discovered a trend, as the date for conversion to digital TV approaches. "I'm starting to find a lot of trash in the ditches," Stephenson says. "I found this TV out there, and all of a sudden 'oh oh'"
Oh, oh indeed, as Madison recycling coordinator George Dreckman points out, televisions are full of lots bad stuff besides Simon Cowell. "There are cancer causing fire retardants in all of the plastic housings," explains Dreckman. "And then there's all the lead in the cathode ray screens." Dreckman says all those materials can be recycled, and kept out of landfills and roadside ditches. Madison residents can pay just ten dollars to dispose of old TVs at the city's drop-off sites. Constable Stephenson figures owners either don't know there are places where old TVs can be recycled, or are just too lazy to deal with it.