Abandoned TVs destined to be salvaged for scrap at giant recycling plant in China Thousands of domestic and imported televisions are being recycled in China Specialist company is one of four TV recycling plants in the Hunan region Scheme is part of China's attempt to become a more eco-friendly nation They were once state-of-the-art entertainment systems that families would have scrimped and saved to buy. Gleeful children gathered around them to watch Saturday morning cartoons while mum and dad saw the events of the Cold War unravel on these screens. But hundreds of thousands of TV sets- some which date back to the 1970s- are now resigned to the scrap heap and are a symbol of a time gone by. Sea of screens: Television sets are piled up in a yard in Zhuzhou outside a specialist TV recycling plant New life: Some of the sets brought to the centre are thought to be more than 40 years old Vast: The discarded sets (right) keep workers busy in the recycling plant's workshop (left) However, in South China's Hunan province, discarded televisions will been reincarnated as their parts are being recycled and repurposed. The old-fashioned sets have been saved from the dump and recycled at a specialist centre in Zhuzhou. They are dismantled by workers at the environmental technology company on conveyer belts in order for their parts to be saved and used in other goods. In parts, the machines are stacked four units high and stretch out to form a sea of screens. The specialist company is one of four TV recyclers in the region. The recycling push is part of a nationwide attempt to cut down on pollution and make China more eco-friendly. Workload: Workers in the recycling plant have thousands of machines to sort and dismantle so their usable parts can be salvaged Gathering dust: These TV screens look like they haven't been switched on for many a decade Dismantling: A worker has removed the back of this television in the environmental technology company Environmentally aware: The recycling plants are part of China's bid to reduce its pollution