Purpose: Nowadays, there is one television device for every four human beings, making television one of the most popular pieces of electrical and electronic equipment in our society, with the so-called flat-screen technologies gaining more and more market share. For one such technology, the plasma display panel (PDP), no complete life cycle assessment (LCA) studies have existed thus far, and therefore, the question as to their environmental performance, especially as compared with LCD technology, is still open. This paper describes a detailed LCA study of a PDP television, including a first comparison of it with the two competing technologies, the cathode ray tube and the liquid crystal display technologies. Methods: An LCA study from cradle to grave—i.e., from the extraction of the various resources used in the production to the final recycling or disposal activities—has been established taking the complete life cycle of one PDP television as the functional unit. Results: Analysis of the complete life cycle of a PDP television shows that the distribution stage is of no importance. Of the remaining life cycle stages, the importance of the use phase depends on the actual production mix used for the electricity consumed. A fossil-based electricity mix, such as the Union for the Coordination of Transmission of Electricity (UCTE)-mix, causes an impact in the use phase about two times higher than in the production phase. The production phase is dominated by the printed wiring boards and their various components—responsible for more than three quarters of the impact of this first life stage. Last but not least, in the end-of-life (EoL) phase, substantial environmental benefits are possible through a modern recycling system. A comparison of the PDP with competing technologies shows the PDP technology to be the more environmentally friendly one, based on the impact per square-inch of screen. All technologies show thereby a similar picture—production and use having high impacts, distribution being irrelevant, and EoL resulting in an ecological benefit. Conclusions: Hence, it is advisable to use electronic devices such as a PDP television as long as possible, because within the manufacturing stage, the production of the electronics is by far the most important production part. Some of this high environmental impact in electronics can be recovered in an up-to-date recycling system. The second most important life stage is the use phase, which depends on the production mix of the electricity consumed; the more non-renewable sources used for its production, the higher the impact of the use phase will appear. Hence, electronic devices should be used specifically and be turned off when not in us
