Matsushita (AKA Panasonic) have this great idea of recycling the plastics out of old CRT televisions for use with their brand spanking new Viera LCD series. The problem with the old CRT TVs is they often contain specific bromine fire retardants and are coated in materials regulated by the RoHS directive, which when simplified means it is difficult to reuse the plastic.
Matsushita are using “Plasector,” a self-developed identification device for plastic and have also introduced a hazardous chemical identification system in every process of plastic recycling to comply with the RoHS directive. They have also improved on the plastic with the help of a plastics manufacturer, and have been able to make it the same or stronger than those of the plastics used for existing flat-screen TVs.
Plastic takes a long time to break up, so it is always nice to hear about a company making plans to recycle it. The first lot of TV’s are expected to hit sometime in 2008, with Sony doing a similar thing with their Bravia range.

For more info, click over to the TechON Website.