American Electronics Recycling in Sarasota is one of the few places in the country that recycles old TVs.

"We can run 12-16-thousand pounds an hour," said Peter Prinz of American Electronics Recycling. "It's a lot better for the environment. Imagine all this dumped in the landfill."

But many people don't even think about recycling televisions. Which means the sets do end up in landfills, potentially leaching harmful materials that end up in the earth.

"Lead, cadmium, chromium--heavy metals," said Jeff Prather of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. "Two million tons of electronic waste went into landfills throughout the U.S."

A TV's glass tube carries as much as eight pounds of lead by itself. That lead could make it' way into the ground water supply and eventually into water people drink.

"It definitely has been shown to cause health defects in people, especially younger children," said Tom Waters of Seminole County Environmental Services.

That's why Waters runs an electronics waste recycling program. He's trying to get more people to recycle.

"We get somewhere between 75 and 100 TVs a month," he said.

But imagine how many are not recycled. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates in 2006, nearly 26-million televisions were thrown away. If placed side by side, those TVs would circle the globe. And the problem is only expected to get worse. Many people are looking to upgrade to the crisp clear picture of the bigger high definition sets, especially when the analog broadcast signals disappear next year. These are the same people who will likely be getting rid of their old sets.

Environmental officials hope more people will think about recycling. The recycled material from an average television is worth about $5.50. steel from the TVs is sold to a steel mill near Jacksonville. Aluminum and the copper chop are sold to foundaries in the Midwest. Plastic is sold to different manufacturers in China that need low cost molded plastics.

It is not illegal for private citizens to throw away their TVs away, but businesses are required to recycle them and in most cases must pay for the recycling. Most counties in Florida have an electronics recycling program. You can link to the programs by clicking here."