Big Fat, Old TVs. All About Recycling Stuff.

Matt and I have been tidying up around our house. It's been happening slowly, and once we open up a space, it feels good. Then it gets re-populated with the kid's toys that sprawl into empty spaces, and, well it has to start all over again.

In the last week we've cleansed our house of the portacot, some clothes that don't fit, some old books - and best of all - the big fat old tv. While everything else went to charity, no one wants a big fat old tv. And I didn't want to toss it out on the side of the road, hoping and praying someone else would either:

a) pick it up thinking it was the score of the century

or 

b) let some teenagers smash the TV and then let it sit on our footpath for the next few months.

After some research I discovered that those big fat old tvs are not only a footpath eyesore, not only outdated, and not only big and fat, but they carry 2kgs of lead and other heavy metals. If you toss them in landfill, not only does it overstretch limited capacity, but the toxic contents can leach into the ground. 

So I discovered that for a fee of $50 we could recycle our e-waste with a better conscience - as well as removing the space hog from our living room floor. We went to Planet Green Recycling (in Artarmon), but I've since discovered other places that do it. The City of Sydney host e-waste drop off days every three months, and this includes collection of computers, printers, electronic games, CDs, DVDs, cameras and phones (although you can donate your old mobile handsets to YouCan to help raise money for teen and young adult specific cancer wards). 

I hate the idea of tossing things into landfill, which I pretty well documented when I went through "the bin" reclaiming someone else's 'stuff' over the course of a couple of months, I'm pretty chuffed we found somewhere to recycle our big fat old tv.