During last weekend alone, the company said about 400 televisions were taken to the Haverton Hill site for recycling as people in the area decided to upgrade old televisions in favour of the latest flat screen plasma and LCD screens.
That amounted to about three tonnes in weight over three days, which were taken away for recycling on Monday morning.
Jon Westwick, SITA UK's day operations manager at Tees Valley, said: “We have definitely noticed more people bringing in old TVs to recycle in recent weeks, which we can only presume is due to the fact that the World Cup is about to start.
“People are obviously taking advantage of the special offers out there and upgrading their TVs, so they can watch the games on bigger and more impressive screens. A lot of the TVs that are coming to us are still in working order, and some people even give us the remote, as well. They obviously just fancy treating themselves.
“Let's hope England perform for us and make it worth their while.”
“Significant”
Mr Wetwick said the only other time of year when they saw a similar increase in TV recycling was at Christmas, when there was always a greater number of people splashing out on new television sets.
“We generally see on average about 30 tonnes of TVs brought to us every month, although the figures do fluctuate, but in the last month it has been about 45 tonnes, which is quite significant,” he added.
“Obviously, we are delighted that people are bringing their old sets to us and we would encourage anyone who buys new electrical items to ensure they recycle their old ones. An incredible 99.99 per cent of any television can be recycled, so it is important that people bring their old sets to us.”
Stevie Rowe, a recycling operative at the Tees Valley site, said the two ISO containers at the facility set aside for TV recycling were overflowing on Monday morning.
He said: “There has definitely been an increase in TV recycling in recent weeks. I think people are just excited about the World Cup and they want the best screen that they can afford. I can't wait for the World Cup to start. Come on England!”
Last year, a total of 461 tonnes of TVs were recycled at the Tees Valley facility. They were sent to Wincantons in Billingham, where they were meticulously stripped down, so the different components could be used again.
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