In the dark corners of many a basement, wedged between cobwebs and pipes, sits a television. Maybe it's not as big as the new one, or the picture is too fuzzy, but either way, it's kaput.

The question is what to do with it. Most people simply don't know.

On Feb. 17, millions more televisions will become obsolete when federal law mandates all stations switch to digital broadcast. The majority of those TVs will find their resting place in landfills. But unlike most household trash, a television contains lead and cadmium -- elements that are hazardous to human health.

To avoid contaminating soil and groundwater, experts say, electronics should be recycled. That's why the Allegheny County Health Department and the Pennsylvania Resources Council are hosting three "Hard-to-Recycle" events this summer, where, for a fee, they will collect items like televisions, laptops and printers and send them to eLoop LLC, a company that specializes in recycling electronics.

Yesterday, at the county's parking lot at 39th Street and Penn Avenue in Lawrenceville, about 300 people dropped off more than 200 TVs, computer monitors and processing units, paying anywhere from $5 tp $50 to ensure environmental peace of mind.

Bryan Mills, a software engineer, said he discarded his old 26-inch RCA TV -- and paid the $25 disposal fee -- because he wanted to be at the forefront of the movement to change how society deals with electronic garbage.

"I have been trying to get rid of [the TV] for about a year, but I didn't want to just drop it in my Dumpster. I don't want to be responsible for it being thrown in a landfill somewhere and leaking toxins into the ground," Mr. Mills said .

Jerry Gindele, an insurance agent who lives in Squirrel Hill, said he didn't mind paying $57 to dispose of two TVs and a flat screen Dell desktop "as long as the disposal is done properly." Like Mr. Mills, Mr. Gindele said it took him a long time to get rid of the appliances, mostly because he was unsure of how to go about it. "I thought that simply dumping them was illegal, and that there are specific ways of doing it."

Ned Eldridge, president of eLoop LLC, said the company collected 80 TVs of all sizes, 60 printers and scanners, 147 computers including monitors and processing units, and 210 office appliances, including printers, scanners, phones, DVD and VCR players.

Much of it will be sorted at the company's processing facility in Turtle Creek and then shipped to companies in Wisconsin and Canada. The TVs and computer monitors will go to Wisconsin, where they will be stripped of lead and other hazardous material, and the glass will be reprocessed and recycled.

The concept of electronic waste -- "e-waste" for short -- has trickled onto the public radar slowly, but it is of great concern to environmentalists.

"If the monitor or screen gets broken [in a landfill] then you can let out lead dust or cadmium dust, and that stuff is very, very toxic," said Elizabeth Grossman, author of "High Tech Trash: Digital Devices, Hidden Toxics, and Human Health."

"If you have a Dumpster full of computer monitors, that's classified as hazardous waste," she said.

The heavy metals in televisions and computers shield the cathode ray tubes that make up the screen. Liquid crystal displays do not have cathode ray tubes, but they contain mercury, a hazardous toxin.

The federal government has not taken conclusive action on the e-waste issue. "There's no law saying you're not able to put your television or your computer into the trash," said Sarah Alessio, who oversees litter and household hazardous waste for the Pennsylvania Resources Council in Pittsburgh. While a number of states, including California, Washington and Maine, have passed laws to prohibit e-waste in landfills and to provide for more sustainable options, a similar effort in Pennsylvania stalled in the Legislature last October.

One reason experts are concerned is the exploding nature of the problem. In 2005 alone, the United States generated 2.63 million tons of e-waste, making discarded electronics the fastest growing portion of the waste stream, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The 2009 digital TV switch over will only add to those numbers.

Technically, the change will affect a minority of TV viewers in the area, but it's expected to generate a large increase in TV sales.

"We want to see the Penguins on 50 inches of plasma TV, in high definition," said Dave Mazza, regional director of the Pennsylvania Resources Council. "I'm certain people will use this as an excuse to go out and buy a new television."

Dan Karner, who works in TV sales at Circuit City in Ross, confirmed that he has seen an increase in people looking for new sets, many expressing confusion about the nature of the switch. While most elderly customers want a converter box for their old television, said Mr. Karner, younger customers "all want new TVs."

To the people at the Pennsylvania Resources Council, that means mountains of old televisions -- and the lead and cadmium they contain -- are headed for improper disposal.

To complicate the matter, said Mr. Mazza, "there are a lot of folks who claim to be e-waste or computer recyclers who use questionable practices."

Despite the lack of a universal program, there are e-waste watchdogs, including the Basel Action Network, an environmental group that initially uncovered the export of e-waste in their 2002 documentary "Exposing Harm."

"There were a lot of anecdotes of entire e-waste loads getting dumped in China," said Sarah Westerveld, e-waste project coordinator for BAN. Exported televisions or computers marked as "going for recycling" said Ms. Westerveld, easily fall into "a huge informal sector using very toxic technologies." In countries like China where environmental restrictions are lax, "they end up dumping many of the heavy metals and bioaccumulative chemicals right into the rivers," said Ms. Westerveld.

Alan Boring, general manager of A greenSpan Computer Recycling Inc. (which handles the materials collected by eLoop) said his company has taken a pledge with BAN, meaning they have promised never to put anything toxic in a landfill, export hazardous materials or use prison labor.

"If I wanted to, I could sell that same piece of equipment and get $3 to $4 for it as long as I was able to allow whoever to export it overseas," said Mr. Boring. Instead, A greenSpan keeps hazardous materials within the country for processing, said Mr. Boring, costing his company roughly 15 cents per pound of computer monitor.

"We are very careful who we partner with," said Mr. Mazza, of the Hard-to Recycle collection program.