Getting Rid of an Old TV or Monitor in Madison County
Indiana has kept televisions and computers out of the trash since 2011. Here is what the rule covers and where the devices go instead.
The rule in one sentence
Since January 1, 2011, Indiana households, public and charter schools and small businesses have not been allowed to put televisions, computer monitors, computers and a long list of other electronics in the trash. That rule, part of what the state calls its E-Cycle program, is why an old TV set out beside the cart in Anderson is not simply collected with the rest of the week's trash, and why every cleanout of an older home ends up with a pile of electronics that needs its own trip.
The reasoning is simple. Electronics contain metals worth recovering, such as copper and gold on circuit boards, and materials that do not belong in a landfill, such as the lead in the glass of old tube televisions. Recycling keeps both in a controlled stream. For a household, the practical effect is that a TV, a monitor or a computer needs a recycling route: a drop-off site, a take-back program or a hauler who delivers it to a recycler.
What the rule covers
IDEM's list is broader than many people expect. It covers far more than TVs and computers, taking in most of the devices that tend to collect in a spare room, a home office or a basement over twenty years:
- Televisions and computer monitors
- Desktop computers, laptops, tablets and e-readers
- Printers, fax machines, projectors, keyboards, mice and external drives
- DVD players, DVRs, cable and satellite boxes, and gaming systems with DVD capability
- Digital photo frames, media players, cameras, camcorders and portable GPS units
Where Anderson residents can take them
In Madison County, the East Central Indiana Solid Waste District runs the Madison County Recycling Center at 2031 Mounds Road in Anderson. Its guide lists electronics among the items it accepts, naming computer components, TVs, VCRs, radios, tablets, cameras and phones, and it notes that fees may apply. The same center takes batteries, tires, household hazardous waste and yard waste, so one trip can clear several kinds of cleanout leftovers.
The center keeps limited hours. The district's guide lists Tuesday and Thursday from 8 to 4, Wednesday from 10 to 6, and the second and fourth Saturdays of the month from 8 to noon, but the guide carries no date, so checking the current schedule before loading the car is sensible. Some electronics retailers and manufacturers also run take-back programs for certain devices, with terms that vary by brand and item.
A little preparation makes the drop-off quicker. Gathering every covered device in the house before the trip, rather than making one run for a TV and another for a printer, saves time at a site with limited hours. Cords can be coiled and taped to the device they belong to, remote controls and small gadgets can go in one box, and loose batteries should come out and travel separately, since the center collects batteries on their own. Anything with personal data should be wiped before it goes, as the next sections explain.
Tube TVs are the heavy problem
Flat screens are light and easy to carry. The televisions that cause trouble are the older tube sets and CRT computer monitors, and the big rear-projection and console sets built into wooden cabinets. A large tube TV can weigh as much as a small appliance, with most of the weight toward the front, and it takes two people and a firm grip on the frame to move one safely down a staircase.
The glass in those sets contains lead, which is one reason recyclers handle them with care and why fees for them tend to run higher than for flat screens. They should never be broken up at home. In a city where half the homes were built before about 1961, sets like these can sit unused in a basement for years and then surface all at once when the house is cleared.
Wipe it before it goes
Anything that stored personal information needs attention before it leaves. Desktop and laptop computers, tablets, phones and some printers and copiers keep data on internal drives or memory. The simplest protection is to back up anything worth keeping, sign out of accounts, and use the device's reset function or a disk-erasing tool to wipe it. For an old computer that no longer starts, the hard drive can be removed and kept or physically destroyed.
A small office clearing out old equipment may want more assurance. Many electronics recyclers offer drive shredding and written confirmation of it, which is worth asking about before the equipment is handed over. The same goes for a family clearing a parent's computer, which may hold banking information and years of personal files.
Handing the job to a hauler
For one flat-screen TV, a trip to the county center is usually easy. For a basement with two tube sets, a console TV, a desktop computer and a box of cables, the math changes: the heavy lifting, the stairs and the limited drop-off hours all favor having someone else carry the pile out. A hauler that collects electronics should deliver them to an electronics recycler rather than a transfer station, and it is fair to ask where they will go.
The page on TV and electronics disposal covers how those pickups work and what they cost, and households with a full cleanout ahead can request junk removal in Anderson for the electronics and everything else at once.
Heavy tube TV in the basement? Ask a hauler to carry it out and deliver it to a recycler.
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Quick Answers
Can a broken flat-screen TV be recycled?
Yes. Indiana's E-Cycle rules keep televisions out of the trash whether they work or not, so a cracked or dead flat screen still goes to recycling. The Madison County Recycling Center lists TVs among the electronics it accepts, with fees that may apply. A broken screen should be carried face up and handled with gloves if the panel is cracked, since sharp edges are the main hazard.
Does the city's Heavy Pick-Up collect TVs?
The city describes Heavy Pick-Up as a pickup for items too large for a residential cart and names furniture and appliances as common acceptable items. Televisions are covered electronics under Indiana's E-Cycle rules, which keep them out of the trash, so a TV needs a recycling route instead: the county recycling center, a retailer or manufacturer program, or a hauler who delivers it to an electronics recycler.
What happens to a TV at an electronics recycler?
It is taken apart. Plastics, metals, glass and circuit boards are separated so each can go to the right processor. Circuit boards are sent on for metal recovery, and the leaded glass from tube sets is handled under controls meant for that material. Very little of a properly recycled television should end up in a landfill, which is the point of the state's rule.
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