Electronics are a small share of what we haul by weight and a disproportionate share of the questions we get. Mostly because the rules are genuinely different, and because everyone has an old television somewhere.
Why e-waste is treated separately
Electronic equipment contains materials that should not go into general waste — heavy metals among them — alongside materials genuinely worth recovering, including copper, aluminium, gold and rare earth elements.
So e-waste has its own recycling stream, and it should never be mixed into a general load. That is the whole of the rule, and it is why we separate it on every job.
Old televisions are the worst of it
Specifically the older CRT sets — the deep, heavy ones. Many Broward garages still have one.
They are difficult for three reasons at once. They are extremely heavy for their size. The glass contains lead. And they have essentially no resale or recovery value, so the economics of processing them are poor.
Flat screens are lighter and easier, though they contain their own materials requiring proper handling. Either way they go to an e-waste processor rather than into a general load.
The data question, which matters more than people think
This is the part worth pausing on.
Any device that stored data should be dealt with before disposal. That obviously includes computers and laptops. It also includes things people forget:
- External drives and old backup disks
- Phones and tablets in a drawer
- Some printers and copiers, which retain scanned documents
- Smart TVs, which hold account logins
- Routers, which store network credentials
Our standing practice is straightforward: we will not take a computer or drive without you confirming you have handled the data, and we would rather you removed the drive entirely. Wiping is good; physical removal is better; a factory reset on a smart TV takes two minutes.
We are a hauling company, not a data destruction service. For business equipment, or anything genuinely sensitive, use a certified destruction provider for the drives and let us take the rest.
What we take
Televisions of any type, monitors, desktops, laptops, printers, scanners, copiers, stereo equipment, speakers, games consoles, routers, phones, tablets, cabling, and the general drawer of adapters nobody can identify.
Also, for practical purposes: small appliances with electronics in them, which sit in a similar stream.
Free options worth trying first
We will always tell you when there is a free route, and for electronics there sometimes is.
Broward County runs household hazardous waste and electronics collection events through the year, and several retailers operate take-back programmes for smaller electronics regardless of where they were purchased. For one laptop and a couple of phones, that is a perfectly good answer and it costs nothing.
Where those stop being practical:
- A large old CRT television you cannot lift into a car
- An office worth of equipment
- Anything mixed in with a general clearout you are booking anyway
That last one is the common case. If we are already clearing your garage, the television goes with it and gets separated properly at no additional complication.
What it costs
Electronics on their own fall inside the $99 minimum load. Bundled into a larger clearout they are simply part of the volume.
The short version
Do not put it in the bin. Deal with the data first. Then either use a free collection event if it is small and portable, or add it to a clearout you are already booking.
Call (954) 536-8189 and mention electronics specifically so we can route them properly.
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