CRT TV and Monitor Recycling in Georgia

CompuPoint USA processes CRT TVs and monitors in-house at our R2v3 and RIOS™ certified facility in Lawrenceville, Georgia. Every tube is separated into two glass streams that never mix: leaded funnel glass, which goes to licensed smelters, and non-leaded panel glass, which we make into crushed glass blasting media.

Recycle your CRTs with us Recycle your CRTs with us

What happens to it

A CRT's picture tube is made of two kinds of glass. The front screen (panel glass) contains little or no lead. The cone-shaped back section (the funnel) and its narrow neck are made with heavy lead content, typically about 20 to 25 percent lead oxide, to shield viewers from the X-rays the tube produces. Because of that lead, funnel glass is regulated under EPA's CRT rules and can't go to landfill or into ordinary glass recycling.

Since new CRTs are no longer made, funnel glass can't go back into new tubes. Smelting is now the main recycling route for it.

Two glass streams, kept apart

	Leaded funnel glass	Non-leaded panel glass
Part of the tube	Cone-shaped back section and neck	Front screen
Lead content	About 20 to 25% lead oxide	Little or none
Where it goes	Licensed lead and copper smelters	Our crushed glass blasting media
What it becomes	Recovered lead; the glass serves as smelting flux	Abrasive for sandblasting and surface preparation

Why CRT glass is separated

A CRT picture tube is made of two kinds of glass. The front screen contains little or no lead. The funnel and neck behind it contain heavy lead content to shield viewers from the X-rays the tube produces. Because of that lead, funnel glass is regulated under EPA's CRT rule and can't go to landfill or into ordinary glass recycling. New CRTs are no longer made, so funnel glass can't go back into new tubes; smelting is now the main recycling route for it.

What we accept

CRT televisions
CRT computer monitors

How we process CRTs

Receiving: each load is weighed and logged.
Dismantling: we remove the plastic housing, circuit boards, copper yoke and wiring, steel band and electron gun.
Separating the glass: the funnel is split from the front panel.
Cleaning: the coating inside the tube is removed.
Crushing: each glass type is crushed into cullet and stored separately.
Shipping and documentation: leaded cullet ships to licensed smelters; every load is tracked, and customers receive a certificate of recycling.

The other parts of each CRT are recycled too: plastic housings go into our plastics stream, copper and steel into non-ferrous and ferrous scrap, and circuit boards into precious metal-bearing materials.

Leaded funnel glass: recycled at smelters

At the smelter, leaded cullet is fed into the furnace with metal-bearing material. The glass is mostly silica, which acts as a flux: it helps form the slag that carries impurities away from the molten metal, replacing sand the smelter would otherwise buy. The lead in the glass is drawn into the metal and recovered for lead-acid batteries, radiation shielding and lead alloys.

Non-leaded panel glass: made into blasting media

The front panel glass is crushed and screened into abrasive grades at our facility. See Crushed Glass Blasting Media.

Compliance

CRTs and leaded glass cullet are managed under EPA's CRT rule and Georgia EPD requirements, under our EPA ID GAR000092056.
Leaded cullet goes only to licensed smelters, in the United States and abroad, approved through our R2v3 downstream due diligence program.
Leaded cullet is never used in our blasting media or any other glass product.