I couldn't agree with you more. I picked up all of my old TVs and radios I had in my old neighborhood from the neighbors' trash; no one ever said one word or batted an eye, and I kept up this trash-picking for over 30 years. The way I see it, these things are being put out with the trash, so folks obviously want to get rid of them. Why should they care if someone grabs an old radio, TV, etc. from a curb or trash pile, as long as no messes are made? They don't or should not care how these things are gotten rid of as long as they get them out of their homes, etc. When I moved here almost seven years ago, I put out a Zenith 12" solid-state b&w portable TV I had no room for in my then-new apartment. A day or so later (before the trash pickup), the set was gone. Did I put up a fuss about it? No. In fact, I was glad to see that someone had picked up the set and was supposedly putting it to good use;
that set had plenty of life left in it and didn't deserve an undignified death in a landfill. The same thing happened when I put out some old furniture, etc. I had brought from my previous residence, again which I had no room for here. One piece was a 6-foot-high shelving unit I had used in a bedroom at the other house; I put it out near the trash barrels behind the apartment building, and within a day or so it had disappeared. My best guess was then and is now that the landlord may have grabbed it to use in the building's basement. It didn't bother me in the least. If someone can find uses for this old stuff people throw out, why not pick it up if it can be put to some use? I've seen several old TVs in the trash here recently, but didn't do anything with them because they were cheap tube portables with PC boards.
I once saw a 32" Mitsubishi color set near the trash barrels last year which I would have ordinarily snapped up without thinking twice; the only reason I left it was it was too big and heavy to lug back into the apartment.