Most guides answer this with a list of routes. That's backwards — the device you have decides which routes are even open to you. A tube TV, a rear-projection console and a four-year-old flat panel are three completely different disposal problems. Here's every device, what's inside it, and where it can actually go.
One photo — flat price, certified e-waste routing, carried from any room
Upload a Photo & Get Quote →Electronics are handled separately from household waste for a specific, physical reason: what's inside them.
Older tube televisions contain leaded glass in the picture tube — several pounds of lead in a large set. Older flat panels can contain mercury lamps in the backlight. Circuit boards throughout carry recoverable metals alongside materials nobody wants in a landfill.
So collection programs exclude them and disposal facilities restrict them. That's not a bureaucratic quirk; it's the reason the free curbside route you're hoping for doesn't exist for this category. The rest of what bulk pickup won't take.
Before the device breakdown, the landscape — described structurally, because the specifics change and you should verify them yourself.
Manufacturer takeback. Makers of televisions and computer equipment sold in Texas participate in recycling and takeback programs. Coverage varies by brand, by device type and sometimes by size, and some programs require you to ship the item. Check the manufacturer's own recycling page for what they'll take from you today.
Municipal and county drop-off. Local programs run recycling centers and periodic collection events that accept electronics. Hours, eligibility and per-item limits differ, and CRTs are frequently treated as a special case. Confirm current terms and locations with your provider before you load the car.
Paid removal. Someone carries it out and routes it to certified processing. Costs money; requires nothing from you but a photo. This is the route that exists regardless of brand, age, size or whether you can lift it.
Try the free routes first — genuinely. They work well for a modern flat panel you can carry. They work poorly for a 200-pound projection console on the second floor.
The hardest item in consumer electronics recycling, and the one people are most surprised by. The picture tube is leaded glass, the recovered material has very little market, and the sets are brutally heavy for their size — a 32-inch tube TV can approach 150 pounds in a case designed with no good handholds.
That combination is why many drop-off sites cap CRT sizes, charge specifically for them, or decline them. The catch: this is the device where "just take it to recycling" most often turns into a wasted trip.
Flat price: small $62, medium $68, large $73 — same as any TV, carried down from any floor.
The 50-to-70-inch cabinets from the early 2000s. Enormous, often over 200 pounds, and built as furniture rather than as an appliance — which means they don't come apart and they don't go through doorways the way a modern panel does.
The catch: effectively no donation or resale market exists, and most drop-off programs aren't set up to receive something this size from a private car. Two people and a plan is the minimum.
Flat price: $73 as a large TV. It's the best value in this entire price list relative to the difficulty.
The easy case, and the one where free routes actually work. Light enough to carry, common enough that programs accept them readily, and if it still works, genuinely donatable or sellable.
The catch: older LCD backlights can contain mercury lamps, so it's still e-waste rather than trash. And "still works" is doing heavy lifting — a panel with a cracked screen or dead backlight has no resale market at all.
Flat price: $62 to $73 by size. Try donating a working one first.
Heavier than an LCD of the same size, often noticeably so, and with a shorter practical lifespan behind it. Most surviving plasmas are now well past their useful life.
The catch: weight plus fragility. A plasma panel is awkward for one person and expensive to crack while carrying, and there's no market for a broken one.
Flat price: $62 to $73 depending on size.
Same materials story as televisions in a smaller package, and the item most likely to be sitting in a closet in multiples. Old CRT monitors carry the same leaded-glass problem as tube TVs.
Flat price: $58 each. Two monitors is $156 — still well under the quarter-truck rate, so per-item pricing wins here.
The device where data matters more than materials. Towers are straightforward to recycle and contain genuinely valuable recoverable metal; the risk isn't disposal, it's what's on the drive.
The catch: wipe it or pull the drive first. We haul hardware and route it to certified processing — we don't wipe drives and we don't offer a data-destruction chain of custody. Any hauler who implies they do is offering something they almost certainly don't operate.
Flat price: desktop computer $62. Laptops and tablets are small enough to go in a mixed electronics box at $77.
Bulky, low-value, and full of plastic — the category with the weakest resale market of anything here. Office copiers are their own weight class.
The catch: toner and ink cartridges should come out and go to a cartridge-recycling route rather than riding along loose in a truck.
Flat price: small printer $58, commercial copier $97. Office and commercial clears.
The forgotten half of the entertainment center. Receivers are heavy for their size, tower speakers are awkward, and the whole category tends to leave at the same time the TV does.
The catch: vintage audio is the one corner of this list with a real collector market. A 1970s receiver or a well-regarded speaker pair may genuinely be worth selling — check before it goes on the truck.
Flat price: stereo $52, large speaker $57.
Every house has it. Loose peripherals, dead chargers, remotes for devices that left years ago, a tangle of HDMI cables.
Flat price: a mixed electronics box at $77 covers the drawer and the closet shelf it spilled onto.
Worth its own section because it's a safety issue rather than a pricing one. Lithium-ion batteries must not go in a truck with general junk. Damaged or compressed lithium cells are a genuine fire risk, and that risk is to a crew and a vehicle rather than to a landfill somewhere.
Loose batteries, battery packs, power tools with built-in cells, and anything visibly swollen should go to a dedicated battery-recycling drop-off. Tell us if a device has a battery pack in it — we'd rather know before it's loaded.
This applies to the free routes as much as the paid one, and it covers more devices than people expect.
Smart TVs hold Wi-Fi credentials and signed-in streaming accounts — factory reset from the settings menu. Computers, phones and tablets should be wiped or have drives removed. Printers in an office context can retain scanned documents in memory. Game consoles hold accounts and payment methods.
Do it while the device still powers on, which is the part people get wrong — a dead device can't be reset, and pulling the drive is a harder job than clicking a menu.
| Device | Flat price |
|---|---|
| TV — small | $62 |
| TV — medium | $68 |
| TV — large (including projection consoles) | $73 |
| Computer monitor | $58 |
| Desktop computer | $62 |
| Small printer | $58 |
| Commercial copier | $97 |
| Stereo / receiver | $52 |
| Large speaker | $57 |
| Microwave | $40 |
| Mixed electronics box | $77 |
| Entertainment center | $77 |
| Order minimum | $75 |
| Quarter truck — a whole AV wall | $241 |
Every price includes the carry from wherever the device sits and certified e-waste routing. Full Austin price list · TV & electronics removal service.
Electronics are one of the few categories where per-item pricing usually wins, because the devices are small relative to their price.
A home office trio — desktop $62, monitor $58, printer $58 — totals $178 against a $241 quarter truck. Per-item wins by $63.
Two monitors is $156. Comfortably per-item.
A full AV stack — large TV $73, stereo $52, two large speakers at $57 each — totals $322, which crosses the $241 quarter truck. The truck wins by $27 and takes the cabinet too.
So the rule inverts from furniture: with electronics, stay per-item until the speakers show up.
The new TV arrived and the old one plus its cabinet need to go. Large TV $73 plus entertainment center $77 is $150 — under the quarter truck, so per-item. Furniture removal.
Tower, monitor and printer at $178. Wipe the drive first; pull toner from the printer.
Two or three tube TVs nobody wanted to deal with. At $62–$73 each you're near the quarter-truck rate quickly, and the truck takes the rest of the garage with it. Garage cleanout.
Monitors, towers, copiers and displays at volume — truck pricing, invoiced, with COIs for the building. Commercial junk removal.
Usually one TV and a box of cables — the $75 minimum territory. The Riverside sublet shuffle.
Expect multiple generations of electronics, including at least one CRT and a stereo worth checking before it goes. Estate sale leftovers.
Whatever the tenant left, usually including a TV too heavy to take. Turnover cleanouts.
Old electronics photograph as clutter and read as dated. Clear it before the photos.
Devices route to certified e-waste processing, where materials are separated — recoverable metals from circuit boards and casings, plastics, and the regulated fractions like leaded CRT glass that require specific handling. That's the whole reason the category is priced and routed separately rather than going out with a sofa.
We don't refurbish or resell, and we don't claim to. If a device still works and you'd rather it found a second life, donation or resale before pickup is genuinely the better outcome — we'd rather tell you that than take $73 for a working television. The sell, donate or trash framework.
Identify the device before you plan the route. A working flat panel has four options and at least two of them are free. A 200-pound projection console on the second floor has essentially one. Nearly every wasted Saturday in this category comes from someone loading a tube TV into a car on the assumption that recycling is recycling — and discovering at the gate that the specific thing they brought is the specific thing that site doesn't take. Check what you have, verify the program's current terms yourself, and if the answer is "nobody will take this," that's exactly what the $73 is for.
Free photo quote — certified e-waste routing, carried from any floor
Upload a Photo & Get Quote →No. Televisions and computer equipment are handled as electronic waste rather than household trash — collection programs exclude them, and disposal facilities restrict them. The reason is what's inside: older tube televisions contain leaded glass, and older flat panels can contain mercury lamps in the backlight. Confirm current acceptance rules with your collection provider or the specific facility rather than assuming, because programs and drop-off sites change.
Flat by size: small TV $62, medium $68, large $73 — including the carry from wherever it sits and certified e-waste routing. Related devices price on their own: monitor $58, desktop computer $62, small printer $58, commercial copier $97, stereo $52, large speaker $57. A box of mixed small electronics is $77. A $75 order minimum applies, which a single large TV clears on its own.
There are free and low-cost routes, and they're worth trying first. Manufacturers of televisions and computer equipment sold in Texas participate in takeback and recycling programs, and municipalities and counties run drop-off sites and periodic collection events. What varies — a lot — is which brands are covered, what sizes are accepted, whether you have to ship it yourself, and where the nearest site is. Check the manufacturer's own recycling page and your local program listings for current terms before planning around them.
CRT televisions are the hardest single item in consumer electronics recycling. The picture tube is leaded glass, there's very little market for the recovered material, and the sets are extremely heavy for their size — a 32-inch tube TV can approach 150 pounds. That combination means many drop-off sites cap CRT sizes, charge for them specifically, or decline them outright. It's the one device where a paid haul is often the only route that actually works.
Yes, and more devices than people expect. Smart TVs hold Wi-Fi credentials and signed-in streaming accounts — do a factory reset from the settings menu before it leaves. Computers, phones and tablets should be wiped or have their drives removed. We haul hardware and route it to certified processing; we do not wipe drives or offer a data-destruction chain of custody, and you should be skeptical of any hauler who implies otherwise.
Yes — entertainment center $77, and it's frequently the reason the TV is going in the first place. A large TV plus the cabinet it sat in totals $150 by the piece. Once you add a stereo and a pair of speakers the stack reaches $316, at which point the $241 quarter truck is the cheaper call and takes whatever else is in the room.