TV and electronics disposal in Minneapolis

The short answer

The minimum for a visit is $75, so a single 42-inch TV at $62 bills at $75 — worth adding the monitor and the box of cables while the visit is happening.

Disposal is included. There is no e-waste fee added on top and no charge for carrying it down from a third-floor walk-up.

Minnesota does not let screens go in the trash

This is the part that catches people who moved here from elsewhere. Minnesota is one of the states that keeps televisions, computer monitors and similar display devices out of household garbage. They have to go through a recycling channel.

Practically, that means your garbage hauler will not take a TV off the alley apron, and leaving one out there does not make it disappear — it makes it sit. Check your city's bulky-item page for whether electronics are on the accepted list at all and what the current charge is, because in most of the metro screens are handled differently from furniture.

The other thing it means: the retailers, county drop-offs and certified recyclers that do take them generally charge for the service, often by screen size or by weight. Check the current rate before you drive out there with a 65-inch in the back seat.

The old CRT in the basement

Every third house in this city has one. A 200-pound rear-projection console or a 32-inch tube television, sitting in the basement rec room of a Nokomis or Longfellow bungalow since it was replaced by a flat panel around 2009.

Two reasons it is still there. The first is that it is genuinely heavy — a big CRT is a two-person lift on a good floor, let alone up a narrow pre-war staircase with a turn at the bottom. The second is leaded glass: CRTs contain a meaningful amount of it, which is exactly why they are regulated out of the trash stream and why recyclers charge to process them.

Priced the same as any other TV by size, carried up from wherever it is, no stair charge. $62, $68 or $73 depending on the screen.

Where the free and cheap routes genuinely work

• Retailer trade-in or haul-away on delivery. If a new TV is being delivered, ask at checkout whether the old one goes back on the truck. Same rule as appliances — it only happens on delivery day.
• Manufacturer and retailer take-back programs. Several accept small electronics free of charge and charge for large screens. Worth ten minutes of checking if you only have one item and a car.
• Hennepin County drop-off sites. They handle electronics; check current rates, which typically vary by device type.
• Giving it away. A working flat panel moves fast on neighborhood groups in Longfellow, Seward or Northeast. A CRT does not move at all, in any season, to anyone.

All four assume the item is already at ground level and in your car. For a basement CRT or a wall-mounted 75-inch, none of them are actually available to you until someone carries it.

Wipe it before it leaves the house

This is on you and it takes five minutes.

• Smart TVs hold your streaming logins. Factory reset from the settings menu before it goes.
• Computers and laptops — pull the drive, or wipe it. Do not rely on deleting files.
• Printers can store scanned documents in memory. Commercial copiers almost always do.
• Phones, tablets and old routers hold accounts and network credentials. Reset them.

A box of assorted electronics is $77, which is a good way to clear a drawer of old phones, chargers, cables and a dead tablet in one line item — but empty them first.

Worked examples with the addition shown

• Living room refresh in Kingfield. 42-65in TV $68 + entertainment center $96 = $164.
• Basement rec room clear-out in Standish. Old CRT under 42in $62 + 65in+ TV $73 + box of electronics $77 = $212.
• Home office in a Fulton house. Two computer monitors at $58 each ($116) + desk $83 + office chair $61 = $260.
• Student apartment near campus. TV under 42in $62 + microwave $30 = $92.
• Small office on Central Avenue. Commercial copier $97 + two monitors at $58 each ($116) + box of electronics $77 = $290.

All plain addition of published rates. If you have a lot of it, a quarter truck at $241 or a half at $431 may price lower and you will be told which.

What happens to it after pickup

Screens and electronics are routed to recycling rather than landfill. That is not a marketing line, it is a requirement in this state, and it is also why the free routes charge you.

Working equipment gets offered for reuse where there is a taker. Everything else goes for material recovery — steel, aluminum, copper, circuit boards, and in the case of CRTs, the leaded glass that has to be handled separately.

Your price does not change based on which of those happens. $68 for a 42 to 65 inch panel is $68 whether it is five years old and working or cracked and dead in the basement of a Powderhorn duplex.

Frequently asked questions