Don't Kill Your TV
Recycle it instead. Yes, we FINALLY got rid of the big old CRT TV. We had added a digital converter box and kept on using the old, but functional, tube TV for years. A good friend pushed us into the digital TV era with a hand-me-down, but quite decent LED digital TV (I'm not a luddite, really!). This left us with an electronic white elephant to kill recycle.
I downloaded the manual and configured the digital set in short order, but the old TV was left hulking in a corner of the living room. After a few weeks of trying to ignore it a quick Google search and phone call later I was hauling the glass-eyed beast off to its final reward. I had assumed there would be more hassle or expense, but a nationwide electronics retailer accepts TV's up to 32" for FREE recycling. I only needed to haul the TV (happily and quickly) to them.
According to Best Buy Recycling Standards and their regional recycling partner's website our old TV will be 100% recycled to national and state standards with nothing sent overseas or to a landfill. That might not be as viscerally satifying as smashing the old tube, but I'll take the tradeoff for a much cleaner end to the old TV.
More Info:
EPA.gov - Electronics Donation and Recycling
Santa Fe Solid Waste Management Agency - TVs & Computer Monitors
