LIFE+ Ecovitrum Project - How to convert an old television into tiles
Televisions and computer monitors are not necessarily obsolete waste for they can also be converted into tiles, building materials or street furniture. The Ecovitrum project developed by the Provincial Council of Valencia, and funded by the EU, is making this a reality.
In Spain about 300,000 televisions and computer screens are discarded each year, and often end up in landfills. The result is that 10,000 tons of recyclable materials are lost and some of those residues then contaminate soil or groundwater. Those appliances are made of 40% of glass, which due to its composition, is not reintroduced into productive cycles. However, it may be recovered and transformed into seemingly unrelated elements such as ceramic material, artificial marble, cement-based components or street furniture.
As stated by the Provincial Councillor for the Environment, Ernesto Sanjuán, there are several phases for the implementation of this project: "The first step is to implement citizen awareness raising campaigns and other campaigns to improve the management of these residues. Then the applications of glass from televisions and monitors in different building materials will be studied. Some of the raw materials used in their production can be substituted by the glass from those appliances. Finally we will build a pilot plant to treat all types of glass from televisions and monitors transforming them into high quality raw materials, in order to use this glass to make new products such as ceramic materials, artificial marble or insulation on an industrial scale.”
Ecovitrum has a budget of €2.4 million. The EU will provide almost half of the money. The Provincial Council of Valencia and partners in the consortium, amongst them a Hungarian collective scheme ELECTRO-COORD HUNGARY will provide the rest. The project will run from January 2010 to December 2012.
For more information on LIFE + Ecovitrum project, please go to the project website: http://en.ecovitrum.eu/.