One good product deserves to be another-Sony TV speaker box

As more and more electronics products become waste as opposed to being repaired with the advent of low-cost manufacturing, Sony Technology Center-San Diego (STC-SD) engineers looked into areas where they could reduce manufacturing costs, conserve natural resources and promote new business all while protecting the environment. After much research and investigation, they discovered the perfect venue. Sony TV manufacturing in the San Diego region currently requires 6 million pounds, or $2.7 million, of plastics each year to produce the internal speakers, Sony engineers working with procurement specialists found old agricultural plastic trays, coat hangers and electrical wire spools can be used as a raw material in the production of the boxes resulting in the first known use, worldwide, for post-consumer plastic in a product of this type. This paper describes the engineering and quality control developed to meet the requirements that demand near virgin replication of physical properties including UL certification. Sourcing recycled content is an equal challenge, which procurement investigated the viability of several re-processing companies for reliable quantity per month, quality control, and business stability all for the purpose of being able to supply a continuous reliable stream to our mold shops. Raw material costs were lowered while preventing this plastic waste from entering the municipal waste streams. This accomplishment is absolutely significant in that this is the first step in realizing a truly sustainable solution to the growing volume of waste electronics. Its sustainable because the driving force is economics. Not only are costs lowered, but also valuable plastics are being saved from destruction. The scrap from electronic products is not really waste, its just a new source of raw material for the next generation of products. Plastics are: durable; lightweight; versatile; cost-effective; and reusable. Introduced into production September 1999, the manufacturing expanded to all TV models in the San Diego/Tijuana region in 2001.