Environment Friendliness & Recycling Options For Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) Televisions

Abstract

Environment friendly products can be defined as products which show significant environmental improvements made at their most important life-cycle stages. For durable goods, life-cycle stages include manufacturing, use, and end-of-life of product. Reverse Supply Chain Management is the process of planning, implementing, and controlling the efficient, cost effective flow of raw materials, in-process inventory, finished goods and related information from the point of consumption to the point of origin for the purpose of recapturing value and/or proper disposal. The efficient and proper use of 5R’s processes namely Remanufacturing, Refurbishment, Reuse, Repair; and Recycle help the product to be greener and environment friendly. Part of the process also includes the proper disposal of goods which is essential for maintaining a green environment. This study aims at finding the significant factors to be considered by Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) Television component manufacturers to manufacture Environment Friendly Product. Various parameters like raw material procurement; water and energy consumption in product manufacturing; the extent of environmental regulations followed; waste production; and waste processing have been considered in this study. A Case Study has been prepared to study the entire manufacturing process of a CRT Television. The case study also looks at the regulations followed by CRT TV component manufacturers in India and how they are different from other countries. An attempt has been made to find out the value which can be recovered at the End-Of-Life of CRT TVs. The case also looks at safe recycling options for CRT TVs. The study shows that CRT TV component manufacturers consider Resource Procurement, Energy Utilization; and Compliance with Regulations to a significant extent. Also, an attempt has been made to develop an Environmental Friendly Index (EFI). The EFI depends on resource procurement, energy utilization, waste production, waste processing, and existence of environmental team in the company. There have been no steps taken by these component manufacturers towards dealing with return goods. All the return goods are dealt with by recyclers, who extract the material through unscientific and non-environmental friendly ways. The recyclers are not able to extract all the useful material, which if done in an efficient way, will result in more material recovery.