Before the Super Bowl last year, more than 7.5 million households purchased a brand new television before the big game. Whether viewers are watching to catch the big game, the spectacular halftime show, or even for the striking commercials, everyone wants the perfect display to make their viewing a touchdown. If you’re one of these many devoted Super Bowl fans, you are probably searching for deals during Black Friday or Cyber Monday sales. No matter how you watch your favorite team, don’t forget to bid farewell to your old TV sets responsibly.
     
In the United States, more than 80% of TVs are left to be dumped in landfills. Landfill disposal poses a threat to the environment and well-being of the community. Certain televisions may contain hazardous and toxic materials, such as lead, mercury, and arsenic.
Recycling TVs will not only keep this toxic waste out of the ground, but it will also eliminate the need to extract other limited resources. Once a TV is dropped off to be recycled, it is taken to a special facility where it is taken apart and separated for recycled disposal. The glass from the screens, for example, is ultimately used in other products.
Huddle Up!
Landfill interception! Verizon and the NFL simplified this issue by offering an event for all their favorite fans. People were able to bring their old TVs and other personal e-waste to Verizon’s Recycling Rallies on 1/8 in Times Square and on 1/7 in Fair Lawn, NJ. To find a recycling center located near you, please visit  1800Recycling.com.
Enjoy your new devices, but don’t forget to recycle your old ones! Happy shopping!
Greening Broadway
By Rebekah Sale, Coordinator of the Broadway Green Alliance
For the past five years, the Broadway Green Alliance (BGA) — an industry initiative that educates, motivates, and inspires the entire theatre community and its patrons to adopt environmentally friendlier practices — has been working to green-up Broadway. Besides working with theatre owners to replace all of their roof and marquee lights with energy-efficient bulbs, we now have a backstage liaison at nearly every Broadway show, operate a free binder exchange, circulate information on greener, better practices for all areas of theatre, and hold recycling collection drives four times a year.
For Broadway Green Alliance’s next drive, the alliance was thrilled to be partner with Verizon and the NFL Environment Program on a January 8th Electronic-Waste Recycling Rally in Times Square. Take a look at the website, BroadwayGreen.com, for event details as well as lots of resources and useful links.
When the Broadway Green Alliance holds electronic waste drives we always save all iPods for our friends at the Broadway Alzheimer’s iPod Drive. This inspiring program, started by Broadway musician Dave Roth, puts iPods into the hands of area Alzheimer’s patients through the Music and Memory Foundation (musicandmemory.org). The iPods are loaded with music familiar to these patients and what happens when these patients hear the music they remember is amazing. As Dave explains,
“My mother spent her life devoted to conducting her folk choir in church for nearly 35 years. Unfortunately she has slipped into the fog of Alzheimer’s disease. She has not only lost memories but also the ability to speak. Using Music & Memory’s idea of personalized music, I decided to bring the music back in her life. The results were astounding because she surprisingly was able to recall lyrics and use words that my family and I hadn’t heard her use in years! “
Dan Cohen, the founder of the non-profit Music and Memory, explains:
“Although it doesn’t work for everybody and it is not a cure, it is turning out to be pretty powerful medicine for persons with dementia and others facing cognitive and physical challenges. Re-connecting nursing home residents with “their†music improves mood and enjoyment, increases sociability, enhances cognition, and reduces agitation.â€
Dave Roth elaborated:
“Not only does the patient benefit but the families also feel the rewards from the therapeutic process of reminiscing about their loved ones’ favorite music of their past. It brings families together at a time when they already feel the impacting loss of their loved ones. The Broadway community has banded together and continues to ask everyone to donate their new or used iPods and to remember that ‘every used iPod can bring back a lifetime of memories!â€
iPods collected at the January 8th event will go to Music and Memory to provide New York area nursing home residents with iPods with personalized playlists. Currently there is a waiting list of hundreds of residents who are waiting to enjoy their music.
The Broadway Green Alliance was founded in 2008 in collaboration with the Natural Resources Defense Council. The Broadway Green Alliance (BGA) is an ad hoc committee of The Broadway League and a fiscal program of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids. Along with Julie’s Bicycle in the UK, the BGA is a founding member of the International Green Theatre Alliance. The BGA has reached tens of thousands of fans through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other media.
At the BGA, we recognize that it is impossible to be 100% “green†while continuing activity and – as there is no litmus test for green activity – we ask instead that our members commit to being greener and doing better each day. As climate change does not result from one large negative action, but rather from the cumulative effect of billions of small actions, progress comes from millions of us doing a bit better each day. To become a member of the Broadway Green Alliance we ask only that you commit to becoming greener, that you name a point person to be our liaison, and that you will tell us about your green-er journey.
The BGA is co-chaired by Susan Sampliner, Company Manager of the Broadway company of WICKED, and Charlie Deull, Executive Vice President at Clark Transfer<. Rebekah Sale is the BGA’s full-time Coordinator.
Go to the Broadway Green Alliance
