Do not leave those old TVs at the curb
Even though the Thanksgiving leftovers have just been finished off and we can anticipate hearing Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You” on the radio approximately 1,412,389 more times in the next three weeks, the holiday season will be over before you know it.
The clean slate of January will be here. The new sweaters will join the older ones in the closet, and the tree that looked so festive in the living room just a few weeks before will be out by the curb, leaving behind pine needles that could linger in the carpet until June.
Something else might well be joining Christmas trees outside – old television sets.
They don’t belong there.
Once the most prized and pricey of household goods – a Philco set with a 12-inch screen in 1950 cost $500, the equivalent of $5,000 in today’s dollars – television sets are now disposable.
The must-have set from a decade ago has long since been left in the dust by models that offer better sound, better picture quality, better everything. And considering that big-screen sets are big-time holiday gifts, some folks will undoubtedly decide their old sets no longer have a place in their homes.
However, TV sets can no longer be put out with the trash. That ended in 2013, with Pennsylvania’s Covered Device Recycling Act, which sensibly prohibited the disposal of electronic goods in landfills because of the environmental damage they would inflict.
OK, so with that option out, how about a thrift store? Problem is, most don’t want old TV sets either. They’re now a dime a dozen.
The big-box electronics retailer Best Buy quit taking television sets and computer monitors in the commonwealth earlier this year because Pennsylvania law does not allow retailers to charge for recycling, unless a coupon or rebate is thrown into the mix.
This has led some people to take to online services like Craigslist and desperately hope that someone will take their television set for $10, $5 or for nothing.
Then, there are those folks who put sets out by the curb in the hope that someone will drive by and decide they want a freebie, no matter how outmoded it may be. The less ambitious leave them in their basements to silently molder, while the less scrupulous dump them out in the woods or toss them in a ditch, deciding that, hey, let’s make them somebody else’s headache.
We’ve occasionally seen television sets lingering in yards or on sidewalks for days or weeks, going unwanted and becoming eyesores. This region has enough of an issue with litter as it is, so leaving old television sets out to bake in the sun or get pummeled by rain only exacerbates this problem. Fortunately, there are options available for people to get rid of unwanted television sets. Some communities have recycling drives that allow people to drop off unwanted television sets.
Washington County, for instance, collects unwanted electronics at the Washington County Fairgrounds, typically on the first Tuesday of the month starting at 2 p.m. The next is scheduled for Dec. 13. Information is available online at www.co.washington.pa.us. Greene County will be collecting electronics the following day at its fairgrounds, also at 2 p.m.
If you have a television set you need to part with, you should take advantage of opportunities like these.
You’ll not only be getting it out the door, but also helping your community.