Millions of LCDs are discarded annually, and currently there are few safe disposal options available. LCD waste is potentially hazardous and is no longer permitted to be incinerated or disposed of in landfills in the EU. In an effort to find a viable LCD disposal solution, a consortium of nine partners was established by the Resource Efficiency Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) and the Displays and Lighting Knowledge Transfer Network in the UK to investigate possible uses for recycled LCD crystals. Recently, work pioneered by Dr. Andrew Hunt and colleagues of the University of York was presented at the 14th Annual Green Chemistry and Engineering Conference in Washington DC, which proposes to use recycled polyvinyl-alcohol (PVA) from LCD displays in the prevention of infectious disease. After processing PVA to make it suitable for biomedical applications, silver nanoparticles may be added to the compound to impart it with antimicrobial properties. The resulting PVA-based substance may one day be used as an additive in cleaning products to assist in the prevention of nosocomial infections.
Video from the press briefing:
University of York press statement: LCD television waste ‘could help prevent bacterial infections’…