an end of an era...

The "big city" next to me government runs the landfill that 5 South Dakota counties send their trash to, including mine from bedroom town. Big city operates a "household hazardous waste" facility where people can drop off materials including electronics. CRTs are allowed to be dropped off for free as part of the deal.



For the past 3 years or so, I've brought down every couple of weeks or so or at least once a month an old tv or monitor that I've scrapped out and put back together. Businesses or organizations are not allowed to drop off their electronics for free (don't know if they accept them or not for a fee) but I consider what I do a hobby which maybe has a little positive cash flow, so is it a "business" or not, I'll let others decide. They have never said anything about no cords danging from the backs of the crts and never asked me if I scrapped the units out. And I never offered to tell them that I did. They once asked me when I brought down 2 sets of rear-projection tv lamps if they came from a business but that's been the only word until about 2 weeks ago.

I had taken Friday afternoon off from work because I was going out of town youth deer hunting with my son and a group and need to get a bunch of things done that couldn't be done that Sat. because of the trip. I think it was the head guy of the city crew that recognized me or my vehicle and when he scanned my license (have to do this to prove residency within the 5 served counties) he must have ran my list of drop offs. He asked if I had brought computer monitors down before and I said sure. He said you've brought down 5 this year (I thinks its actually more, at least way more tvs) and I couldn't bring any more down for the year. I had 1 more tv in the garage and was sort of dreading taking that one down this week but in a twist of irony, their scanner was down Tuesday morning and they couldn't record my drop.

So, I'm done with crts, which will please the wife. It was a good run but always sort of a cat and mouse game. Maybe I took advantage of the situation but the city folks also don't fully level with the citizenry and tell them that someone down stream profits from their free drop off. I don't know if I would need a FOIA to get that information out of city gov or if they would send me the details of who picks up all the dropped off electronics but they certainly don't brag it up what happens to all the stuff after they get it. I'm I'm sure most people wouldn't care one way or the other if someone makes coin on their old junk, they just want it out of the house.

One era of my scrapping adventures is over...

It seems to be tougher all the time to get rids of crt's and government isn't making it any easier. I gave up on them when our local goodwill quit taking them.

Hang in there DR, at least we still have our our scrap to keep us occupied.

I live in Mesa Az. Our local landfill operated by the Salt river Indian tribe could care less how much electronics you dump as long as you pay. They have a huge electronics area for TV's and other electronics. Mesa has a deal set up with the tribe that allows us as Mesa residents to once a month haul anything and everything to the dump and the fee is added to our utlitiy bill. It can be an entire load of TV's and old monitors but only once a month. I did notice a while back that Goodwill was pricing old TV's and monitors at a quarter and no sale. Not even on half price days. I did not know they stopped taking them until a week ago when I tried to donate our old Hitachi 52 inch TV that worked perfectly. I took it back home. Unloaded it on the street corner nearby labeling it for free. Walked away. Took a look ten minutes later and it was gone.