ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT AND MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES OF END-OF-LIFE TELEVISION WASTE IN THAILAND

Abstract

In Thailand, television transmission technology was switched from analog to digital system since 2014. These resulted in increasing number of unused televisions and becoming massive television waste problems and intensify environmental impact in the near future. The concerning issues began from hazardous materials contained in large amount of television wastes. If lack of proper management, these are possibilities to contaminate in environment and impact the human health. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate environmental impacts between landfilling and recycling approach from CRT, LCD and LED television at end of life stage by applying life cycle analysis (LCA). The analysis used the SimaPro7.3.3 program under the ReCiPe 2008 assessment method. Furthermore, this research simulate situations in the future and evaluated the potential future impact during 2014-2023 (10 years) from different scenarios management scheme including: (1) 100% landfilling , (2) 5% recycling and 95% landfilling, (3) 20% recycling and 80% landfilling. This study also conducted public surveys to investigate appropriate management planning in Thailand The results found that each type of television has different amounts of toxic substances and recyclable materials. So, effect to environmental and television waste management depends on each type of model. For the endpoint impact assessment, CRT landfilling could contribute the highest negative burdens to the ecosystem and resource depletion impact following by LCD and LED television screen, respectively. For LCD landfilling could contribute the highest negative burdens to the human health impact following by CRT and LED respectively. Recycling approach can reduce the environmental burden due to the avoided of primary material production stages. Particularly, recycling CRT contributes the most environmental advantage from this scheme more than recycling LCD and LED television screen. The scenario analysis results found that the higher percentage of recycling of TV wastes will correspond with the better environment quality compared to landfilling which yields negative environmental impact. This study developed 3 recommended strategies of television management improvement in Thailand including: (1) Recommendation from life cycle impact assessment to reduce overall impact from television equipment (2) Raise public awareness and increase participation in television waste management, (3) Increase effective management and collection of used electronics and establish the recycling TV system in Thailand, (4) Increase incentives for promoting electronic waste collection for recycling system. All strategies need corporation among all stakeholders to implement waste management plan successfully.