Special to the Director's Cut
By Glenn Farley
A few miles from Washington's Interstate 90 there is a pristine waterfall feeding a crystal clear stream.
At the base of that waterfall sits two old analog TVs and a computer monitor.
Somebody picked this spot to throw them away.
Friends of the Trail, a non-profit organization based out of North Bend, specializes in cleaning up debris and garbage left in the forest.
Wade Holden runs the organization.
He says they're finding lots of TVs dumped, and even shot up in places where people do target practice.
"I'm sure there's lots of people doing the right thing. There's always going to be that small percentage of people who don't," said Holden.
The Washington state Department of Ecology says 15 million pounds of TVs, monitors and other hazardous electronics were legitimately recycled so far this year, and still, people bring TVs out to the woods to dump them or shoot at them.
Friends of the Trail says the DTV transition has made it worse.
"It's probably several hundred, I would say, so far this year," said Ed Dodd, also with Friends of the Trail.
It's hard to imagine why people go to the trouble of ditching their old technology out in nature when they can do it in town for free.
