How to get rid of a TV in San Diego

The short answer

Priced by screen size, not by weight - so a 36-inch tube set from 2003 and a 36-inch flat panel are both $62.

The visit minimum is $75, so a single TV on its own comes to $75. Pair it with the stand and it is $68 + $96 = $164, or with the sofa it sat in front of: $68 + $126 = $194.

Why it cannot go in the trash

California classifies televisions and monitors as e-waste and keeps them out of household garbage. Screens contain materials nobody wants in a landfill - leaded glass in older tube sets, mercury in some flat-panel backlights, and circuit boards throughout.

You also already paid toward the recycling of it. California charges a recycling fee on new screens at the point of sale, which funds the state's collection and recovery system.

The practical consequence: a TV left at the curb will not be collected. It will sit. In an alley in North Park or Ocean Beach it will sit until someone puts a foot through the panel, at which point a disposal problem becomes broken glass on a public right of way - and abandoning it there is illegal dumping, traced through whatever has your name on it.

The free routes worth trying

Retailer takeback. Several electronics retailers accept screens and small devices for recycling. Limits apply by size and quantity, so check the current policy and bring it in yourself.

County and community collection events. E-waste events run around the county through the year. Look up what is scheduled near you rather than trusting a date in an article.

Certified e-waste recyclers. There are drop-off operations across the metro. Check hours and whether they take large or tube TVs before driving across town - large sets are the ones most often refused.

Donation, if it works well. A recent flat panel in good condition has real demand here. A tube TV does not, anywhere, at any price.

All of those are genuinely fine. The catch is the same one every time: you need a vehicle, a free weekday, and the set has to get down your stairs first.

The San Diego stairs and mount problem

Two things make TV removal harder here than it sounds.

Where the TV is mounted. Large panels get hung over fireplaces and on walls in houses that never planned for their removal. In the 1920s bungalows of Kensington, South Park and Golden Hill the wall is lath and plaster; in the 1960s Clairemont and Allied Gardens ranch houses it is drywall and a stud somebody hopefully found. A 65-inch panel off a high mount is a two-person job with a ladder.

Where the house is. Canyon-lot living rooms in Bay Park, Del Cerro and Rolando sit below the street, so the TV goes up an outdoor staircase. Beach walk-ups in PB, OB and Mission Beach mean three flights down with a landing turn each floor.

Both included. No stair charge, no charge for the ladder, no charge for taking it off the bracket - the bracket goes too.

The tube TV in the garage

Every San Diego garage has one. This city has no basements, so the garage absorbs whatever a basement would hold elsewhere, and a 200-pound CRT is exactly the object you deal with later - for fifteen years.

They are priced by screen size like anything else: under 42 inches is $62. The weight is the crew's problem. They are also the sets most likely to be refused at a drop-off, which is usually why one has been riding around in the back of somebody's truck in Santee for a month.

Rear-projection sets - the enormous cabinet TVs - are priced by screen size too, which for most of them means $73.

Wipe it before it leaves

A modern smart TV holds your streaming logins, your home network credentials and often a linked payment method. Certified recyclers destroy what they handle, but your own two minutes are more reliable.

• Sign out of every streaming app, then run a factory reset from the settings menu.
• Forget the Wi-Fi network as part of that reset.
• Unpair remotes, soundbars and game consoles.
• If a console or streaming stick is going too, sign out of those accounts separately - a box of electronics is $77 and it is usually full of signed-in devices.

None of this changes the price. It just means that when the set leaves your Carmel Valley living room, your accounts do not go with it.

Priced examples

Chula Vista living room upgrade. TV 42 to 65 inches $68 + TV stand $96 + sofa $126 = $290.

Santee garage, two old tube sets. Two TVs under 42 inches ($62 + $62 = $124) + box of electronics $77 = $201.

Pacific Beach rental turnover, third floor. TV 65 inches and up $73 + entertainment center $96 + small junk pile $82 = $251.

Scripps Ranch home office. Two computer monitors ($58 + $58 = $116) + box of electronics $77 + desk $83 = $276.

Every total is the literal sum of published prices.

Which route to pick

Drop it off yourself if: it is a small or mid-size flat panel, it is on the ground floor, you have a car and a free weekday, and nothing depends on it going this week.

Book a pickup if: it is a tube or rear-projection set, it is wall-mounted, it is above the ground floor, there are several, or you are clearing a unit against a date - a lease end, a walkthrough, a PCS departure.

And since the $75 minimum means a lone TV costs $75 anyway, look around the house first. The monitor in the closet, the box of cables in the garage and the stand it all sat on are usually the cheapest things you will ever add to a booking.

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