View Full Version : Dumping/recycling old tv sets


Telecolor 3007
02-12-2017, 06:38 PM
Seen on youtube (I'm not puting links, because some may find theyr hearts hurt) clips with a lot of tv sets getting massacred at recycling centers. Some of the sets I think where in working condition. Why people are doing that? Do they got too much "high living standards"?

DaveWM
02-12-2017, 07:18 PM
I presume they are not up to current standards of HD etc...
there are perfectly good tube sets put out on the street for local pickup by the garbage nearly everyday around here.

Jon A.
02-12-2017, 07:29 PM
Seen on youtube (I'm not puting links, because some may find theyr hearts hurt) clips with a lot of tv sets getting massacred at recycling centers. Some of the sets I think where in working condition. Why people are doing that? Do they got too much "high living standards"?
Yeah, pretty much. The color CRT reigned supreme for about 40 years, now no one can keep up with technology but almost everyone wants to.

Electronic M
02-12-2017, 09:08 PM
With the way they did the 'digital transition' and the low 'electronic IQ' of the average person there were many dummies that tossed their old working CRT TVs thinking that they were not going to be usable once analog was gone...

The 90's and newer stuff I don't particularly care about seeing hit the curb....Plenty of free HV wire, caps, and line cords to be had cruising the streets.

Dubis7
02-12-2017, 09:32 PM
From personal experience with aging parents, sometimes dealing with old CRT sets (90s black plastic crap, I'd never let them toss anything worth collecting) can be more trouble than they're worth. They're impossible to sell, charities won't take them, and god help you if they need to be moved up or down stairs. The massive home theater CRT sets may have been high end back in the day, but they're a nightmare to deal with anymore, especially when you're seriously considering downsizing and moving. It's not just easier to dump them on the curb for the city to deal with, it's almost your only option.

Telecolor 3007
02-13-2017, 01:24 AM
I do like some '90's tv sets, but from the early '90's, when plastic was still pretty good (and the sets too). :scratch2: Yeah, late '90's sets are usally crap - with some exceptions, of course.
Why charities won't take them?

MadMan
02-13-2017, 02:07 AM
Honestly it's simply an issue of newer, cooler tech being available. Not necessarily better, mind you. But when you see a giant shiny flat panel tv... it looks like something you want to have.

Of course, to me, especially in the early days of flat panels, I found the picture quality of LCDs absolutely horrible. Not to mention the early problems of off-axis viewing. But the main problem: a dvd player or even a coaxial (cable or air) is an analog signal being converted into a digital signal and played by a digital lcd tv, and the picture is only as good as the converter is. Which usually is pretty awful. It's getting better though.

Still, I find crt images to be much more vivid and natural. But then I suppose that's to be expected from a technology that's been refined over almost a century.

Electronic M
02-13-2017, 11:33 AM
I do like some '90's tv sets, but from the early '90's, when plastic was still pretty good (and the sets too). :scratch2: Yeah, late '90's sets are usally crap - with some exceptions, of course.
Why charities won't take them?

Some thrift shops were being overrun since it was cheaper to donate than E-waste. There were times where the Goodwill stores had 20-50 CRT sets on the shelves for $0.49 a piece...You could setup a wall of TVs cheaper than a fast food lunch. They did not sell, and cost charities money to E-waste, and the bigger ones were giving thrift employees hernias from lifting the weight. Goodwill and some other charities stopped accepting CRT TVs.

Telecolor 3007
02-13-2017, 11:52 AM
Seems not even the poor want C.R.T. tv sets. What a world...

Electronic M
02-13-2017, 12:32 PM
Seems not even the poor want C.R.T. tv sets. What a world...

Here in the USA we are or were in the CRT era mostly middle and upper class, and most middle and upper class homes especially in the midwest have at least 3 TVs...usually more. When that many sets are dumped even if all the poor wanted another CRT set there would still be too many in circulation for the poor to be able to take all of them.

There are some poor that don't want old electronics...That is a common thing among the poor every damn thing the own could be old and beat up but they will have the newest most expensive TV/smart phone/computer to keep them entertained while the stay home all day and collect wellfare.

MadMan
02-13-2017, 11:51 PM
they will have the newest most expensive tv/smart phone/computer to keep them entertained while the stay home all day and collect wellfare.

lolololol

Telecolor 3007
02-14-2017, 02:35 AM
Happenes everywhere. But sometimes is society pressure.... how can you use that old stuff.
I'm not poor, not middle class, but for me a C.R.T. tv is a test tv for people. How? For eg. if a she comes into my home and says "crap, you're still using a C.R.T. tv + another comets", it's a preson that not deserves any intrest. If she dosen't makes any coment, that maybe she's a fine she, and if it does like my other electronics then she's a fine she.

Chip Chester
02-14-2017, 08:33 AM
In this town, it costs $5 to recycle one. So more of a liability than an asset for most folks. I have seen a few ads from people wanting certain types of CRT for retro-gaming use, but they're often seeking specific models. Aside from the old/collector iron, I've only got three 13" left. (I have other professional/engineering monitors not included in that count.)

Chip

Jon A.
02-14-2017, 02:55 PM
Happenes everywhere. But sometimes is society pressure.... how can you use that old stuff.
I'm not poor, not middle class, but for me a C.R.T. tv is a test tv for people. How? For eg. if a she comes into my home and says "crap, you're still using a C.R.T. tv + another comets", it's a preson that not deserves any intrest. If she dosen't makes any coment, that maybe she's a fine she, and if it does like my other electronics then she's a fine she.
I don't care about society's opinion about that. I never was one to cave to peer pressure. This leaves me a lot of alone time, without the company of those who would do/have done me more harm than good... wait, what's the down side there? :scratch2:

You have a good way of filtering out the undesirables. It's better to be alone than with someone who's constantly telling you what to do.

Beachboy
02-16-2017, 09:51 AM
Around here, it costs $30 to take a CRT TV to the recycling center. The trash haulers will just leave them at the curb. You see late model CRT sets on Craig's List every day for free, and despite that, there are always a couple idiots who are listing their old CRT sets on sale on Craig's List for obscene amounts such as $50 for a 27" set or $100 for a 36" set. Evidently they are oblivious to the fact that everyone else is trying to give away the same style sets, usually with no success.

In the summer, I walk at dusk for exercise, and I'm constantly amazed to see a huge flat panel TV shining through the window of a "modest" (to put it politely) house that is a low-income rental. It seems like the "poor" are the early adopters of the luxury items, and those of us being responsible with our money usually wait until we can afford the latest "toys".

DavGoodlin
02-16-2017, 03:37 PM
For a variety of reasons, I will take possession of a 1990's or later BPC set and if it works and has video inputs, it goes to one of several charity-supporting thrift shops located in our post-industrial ghettos (small city or big town with concentrated rentals).
They actually sell them for $10-20 to poor folks who have had their LCD TV's stolen. I call them theft-resistant.:D

Otherwise, I will move them along to the county waste management centers who will accept them along with fluorescent lamps, etc. The county I WORK in has one I have dropped off stuff at. They also seem to get stuff the e-waste bulk collectors will not take such as console radios and stereos.
I rescued a 1933 RCA model 280 and a 1968 RCA console HiFi there! They begged me to take them as they did not know what to do, though someone was permitted to drop it off. They turnt me away last summer when they found out I was not a resident.:sigh:

The county I live in has a much more structured, drive-thru household hazardous waste facility that allows only one vehicle in at a time and closes the doors while you're in there. They will take all the e-waste for free but they get squirrelly and act weird:nono: if you look around at what others have dropped off. I saw a group of about 5 post-war TV sets that were diverted and made into a display. I complimented the one guy on it and the next time I was in, the TVs were gone. he said someone stole them. They still won't let you take anything tho.

andy
02-16-2017, 03:51 PM
///

Telecolor 3007
02-16-2017, 05:22 PM
Some people managed to save old stuff from recycling centers (officially they aren't allowed to give you anything, but unofficially...)... but I couldn't save no tv sets. Man, and there was a pile of late '60's' - early '70's Romanian tv sets. Shouldda have tryed my luck last year with 2 portbale sets (not Romanian made), but I was a shy dumb.

Jon A.
02-16-2017, 06:08 PM
The county I live in has a much more structured, drive-thru household hazardous waste facility that allows only one vehicle in at a time and closes the doors while you're in there. They will take all the e-waste for free but they get squirrelly and act weird:nono: if you look around at what others have dropped off. I saw a group of about 5 post-war TV sets that were diverted and made into a display. I complimented the one guy on it and the next time I was in, the TVs were gone. he said someone stole them. They still won't let you take anything tho.
That's one case in which stealing is the only way to get something worthless to most people. If whoever is in charge is willing to bend the rules, even better.

Captainclock
02-16-2017, 06:26 PM
I once saw over at the county landfill near me (which is the only place that takes old CRT Televisions anymore near me) a 1970s vintage Zenith Space Phone TV in the Recycling Container where the TVs go to be recycled, if it weren't for the fact that my kind of annoying staff person was with me that day, I would of nabbed that TV out of that Container and Brought it home with me, but since my staff person was with me I couldn't get it so I'm sure that by now that TV has long since been smashed... :tears: