Washington – MRM, the Electronic Manufacturers Recycling
Management Company, has received the Plug-In To eCycling’s TV Recycling
Challenge award, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) program.
The TV Recycling Challenge is a national competition started this
year, calling upon television manufacturers and electronics retailers to
partner in creative ways to increase responsible recycling and collection
practices for end-of-life TVs in 2009 and beyond, the company said.
MRM said it was picked for the honor over several other programs
after being evaluated on the basis of its partnerships, innovation, longevity,
consumer outreach, accessibility, pounds of TVs collected and ability to ensure
that responsible recycling practices are followed.
In making the award, EPA cited MRM’s “wide reach” and “different
approaches to collecting TVs, including working with charities and self storage
units.”
“By participating in the TV Recycling Challenge, companies
like MRM demonstrate leadership and innovation in conserving energy and
resources through recycling electronics,” said Matt Hale, director, office of
resource conservation and recovery, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “MRM
is to be commended for providing people opportunities to recycle, especially at
a time when people were increasingly looking for ways to safely get rid of their
old TVs.”
The challenge was created this year by the EPA to raise public
awareness of the importance of responsible recycling of televisions and to
recognize significant achievement by manufacturers and retailers in providing
convenient and consistent ways for consumers to safely recycle their old TVs.
Overall, since the Plug-In To eCycling program began in 2003, partners have
recycled more than 200 million pounds of electronics, including televisions as
well as computers and cellphones.
“MRM is thrilled and honored to receive this prestigious award
from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, recognizing our commitment to
properly recycle televisions and our program’s success in making it convenient
for consumers to do so,” said David Thompson, MRM president. “The MRM program
is designed to be easily scalable, and in its first three years alone has
established some 390 drop-off sites located throughout all 50 states, and we
are continuing to grow both the number of recycling collection sites and the number
of manufacturers who use MRM’s services.”
MRM, the Electronic Manufacturers Recycling Management Company,
was founded in 2007, by Panasonic, Sharp and Toshiba. MRM said it seeks to
provide a platform for all electronics manufactures and retailers to contribute
to the development and management of a sustainable recycling system for
electronic products. MRM welcomed Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America as a
sponsor company in July and expects additional manufacturers to join this
innovative national recycling program in the near future, it said.
