What do you do with your old unusable electronics?

[Muse]

Sweet. Put out a printer and old landline phone for garbage collection and it got picked up -- they don't take just anything now.

I'm saving my old turn-the-dial landline phone. I use a cordless for my landline, but in the event of a power outage (e.g. after a big earthquake), electricity may be down for quite a while and I'll still be able to access a working phone line with that old phone in that eventuality. Not so, the cordless. Yeah, I have a smartphone but won't be able to recharge the battery with electricity off and I get only 1-3 bars at home anyway on the AT&T wireless here, and that's pre-quake.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

I'm saving my old turn-the-dial landline phone. I use a cordless for my landline, but in the event of a power outage (e.g. after a big earthquake), electricity may be down for quite a while and I'll still be able to access a working phone line with that old phone in that eventuality. Not so, the cordless. Yeah, I have a smartphone but won't be able to recharge the battery with electricity off and I get only 1-3 bars at home anyway on the AT&T wireless here, and that's pre-quake.

Because you think the old phones don't run on electricity, too?

 

[Red Squirrel]

Because you think the old phones don't run on electricity, too?

They do, but the COs have huge batteries that keep the lines going. It's good to have at least one corded land line phone in the house for this reason. I kind of regret not getting my hands on a rotary one at work when I was cleaning out old customer returns (phone company used to rent phones) it would be kinda neat to have. Those phones are practically indestructible.

 

[TallBill]

Smash them with hammers

 

[Sheep221]

Junkyard

 

[sdifox]

They do, but the COs have huge batteries that keep the lines going. It's good to have at least one corded land line phone in the house for this reason. I kind of regret not getting my hands on a rotary one at work when I was cleaning out old customer returns (phone company used to rent phones) it would be kinda neat to have. Those phones are practically indestructible.

They have decimated a fairly significant portion of the human population if you believe the tv.

 

[Thebobo]

Our county has a drop off for electronics. I would check to see if your county or state offered the same.

 

[runzwithsizorz]

They do, but the COs have huge batteries that keep the lines going. It's good to have at least one corded land line phone in the house for this reason. I kind of regret not getting my hands on a rotary one at work when I was cleaning out old customer returns (phone company used to rent phones) it would be kinda neat to have. Those phones are practically indestructible.

Agreed, and I still maintain a land line. Used to have one of those old 10 pound dial phones, disconnect the wire from the handset and you had one lethal billy-club! With a transformer, and a long cord with a switch I got it to ring that obnoxiously loud bell ringer. I then donated it to our local theater group as a prop for some of their plays. BTW, the phone was RED D:
some of you older folk will get that, LOL.

 

[Raduque]

Charges only apply to certain items; like vacuum tube TVs.

Best Buy

They're supposed to charge (but give a gift card of equal value), but most don't

How is Best Buy supposed to even charge in the first place, when you just set your junk in/on the recycle counter in the entry way? You don't even have to go into the store, just the first set of doors. Set it down, turn around, and leave.

 

[pcslookout]

Throw them away.

 

[who?]

The phone company switch is probably better with touch tone phones than rotary dials. The modern equipment has to translate the pulses from rotary dials into electronic signals.

 

[Imp]

I'm saving my old turn-the-dial landline phone. I use a cordless for my landline, but in the event of a power outage (e.g. after a big earthquake), electricity may be down for quite a while and I'll still be able to access a working phone line with that old phone in that eventuality. Not so, the cordless. Yeah, I have a smartphone but won't be able to recharge the battery with electricity off and I get only 1-3 bars at home anyway on the AT&T wireless here, and that's pre-quake.

I actually threw out a cordless landline set, but ya, I still have an RJ11 hanging loose waiting to be plugged in. There was a plan to get a $15 cheapo landline just in case...

But meh, the way I see it, if cell phones and cable VoIP goes down, we got some serious problems. If none of my neighbors can call, then I'll try to flag a cop down. Otherwise, fuq it, nice knowing you, boyos.

Seriously, I should invest in a rifle more than anything. Not kidding. It's very difficult to get a pistol or "assault rifle" here, but I can get a semi-auto M14, ACR, or Type 97 relatively easily -- unless they changed it recently.

 

[Muse]

Because you think the old phones don't run on electricity, too?

They do, but they don't depend on your house current, they get their juice from the phone lines.

 

[SlitheryDee]

I put them in a shelf and forget about them usually.

 

[SKORPI0]

Brought them to our electronic recycling center. But it's closed until further notice early 2015. City spent a lot of $$ just to get rid of them.

 

[shimpster]

I have some of this around I need to get rid of. I figure it's not acceptable to throw it in my trash. I'm talking about things like:

A full size DVD drive that doesn't work.

Receiver whose FM section went AWOL.

Old not functioning HP4M printer (likely the PS doesn't work).

Boxes of floppy disks.

Motherboards that don't work any more or are hopelessly outdated.

RAM sticks that no one would want anymore.

VCR that doesn't work anymore... I have two of these.

VHS tapes
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I remember hearing about recycling activities such as a one time scheduled drop-off of old electronics, etc., but haven't heard of anything like that these days. I see old TVs on the sidewalk almost every day.

There seems to be a strange silence about old electronics. I've heard that it's not environmentally acceptable to just throw them in landfill.

I know it's against the law to throw your old batteries in the trash in CA. The indie electronics store that I used to bring them to no longer accepts them. They sent me to Urban Ore down on Gilman Street in West Berkeley. Maybe they'll accept old electronics, guess I will call them, but AFAIK they generally just deal in bottles, steel, aluminum, stuff like that.

Return them to WalMart for a full refund