Four million TVs to be 'dumped' as country makes £2.2b switch to digital

A new piece of research has assessed the financial and environmental impact of the government's decision to switch off the analogue signal over the next five years, raising the prospect of enough dumped equipment to fill 100 Olympic swimming pools.

The survey says government is ill-prepared for the mountain of old TV and video sets that will have to be dumped as a result of switchover and are raising the prospect of large numbers of TV's and videos being chucked on the streets of Britain causing environmental damage.

They also claim that the bill being faced by the nation to complete this change will cost a staggering £2.2billion.

Between October of this year and 2012 the government will be swtiching off the analogue TV signal, as part of a phased process.

Research by uSwitch.com says that of the 58million TV sets in the UK, 12.5million of them will be "incapable" of receiving digital TV because they do not have a scart socket. At the moment 33million TVs are already receiving a digital signal.

The survey suggests that 4million people are planning to simply dump the obsolete sets, while another 6million people have no idea what to do about the problem. Only two million are said to be planning to convert their current sets - which requires extra specialist equipment.

Added to this the research suggests that 4million of the 21million video cassette recorders will be dumped because their equipment is incompatible with the digital switchover.

The report says that VCRs will lose a "significant level of functionality" post-switchover as they rely on receiving an analogue signal.

When this is turned off people who own VCRs will be unable to watch one channel whilst recording another - a fact that 46% of households are unaware.

Research showed 4 out of 10 said they had no idea how they were going to deal with this problem, while another 19 per cent said they were simply going to throw them out.

Retailers like Argos, Comet and Dixons are continuing to sell VCRs video recorders even though they are on the verge of being out of date. USwitch believes the cost of replacing VCRs with digital video recorders will hit £1.1billion.

Steve Weller, head of communications at uSwitch spoke of the "alarming proportion" of TV and video sets "heading for the scrap-heap" and said the authorities need to "speed up their act" as a result of a "significant awareness gap".

The organisation wants guidance to be given to all households on how to dispose of these TV and videos and local councils to draw up plans to tackle a potential "digital rubbish dump". They also want warnings placed on VCRs still being sold about their reduced functionality after switchover.

He said: "Collection and recycling schemes need to be set up fast to tackle the mountains of equipment that will be thrown on." He raised questions whether the authorities had analysed the environmental impact of the scheme.