TV and Electronics Disposal in Los Angeles

E-waste is a separate stream in California

Televisions, monitors, computers and a long list of other devices are handled as electronic waste rather than as household trash. They contain materials that have to be recovered or contained properly, and screens in particular are the reason the rules exist.

What that means in practice: an electronic device should not go in your bin, should not go in a dumpster, and in most cases cannot simply be set at the curb for bulky pickup the way a chair can. There is a network of collection points and events across Los Angeles County that take household e-waste, and they are the correct destination. Which sites are open and what they accept changes, so check your own city's current household hazardous and e-waste page before you drive anywhere.

What removal costs, by item

Televisions are priced by size. Under 42 inches is $62. Between 42 and 65 inches is $68. Over 65 inches is $73. An entertainment center or TV stand, which usually leaves in the same visit, is $96.

Computing: a desktop computer or tower is $62, a computer monitor is $58, a home or inkjet printer is $58, a freestanding office or laser printer is $71, a commercial copier is $97, a 3D printer is $82, a freestanding paper shredder is $37.

Audio and small devices: a stereo or sound system is $52, a large speaker system is $57, and a mixed box of electronics — cables, routers, old phones, game consoles, the drawer everyone has — is $57.

The visit minimum is $75, so a single monitor at $58 bills at the minimum. Most people clear the whole media cabinet at once instead.

Common LA combinations

A living room media swap: a 42-to-65-inch TV and the entertainment center it sat on is $68 + $96 = $164.

A home office cleared after a job change — the desktop tower, the monitor, a printer and a box of the accumulated cables and adapters — is $62 + $58 + $58 + $77 = $255. That is a job that shows up constantly in Los Angeles, where an enormous number of people work from a converted second bedroom or a converted garage.

An old plasma or rear-projection set is the other frequent one. Those are heavy in a way flat panels are not, and a 65-inch-plus set at $73 needs two people to move regardless of what it costs.

Old TVs are heavier than the price suggests

The pricing is by screen size, not weight, which works in your favor on the old stuff. A CRT tube television or a rear-projection set from the nineties can weigh more than a washing machine, and the ones still in Los Angeles homes are usually in a garage in Reseda or a back bedroom in a Pasadena bungalow where they were retired rather than removed.

Do not attempt to carry one down a stair alone. The weight is distributed badly, there is nothing good to grip, and the glass front is the part facing your feet.

The LA garage problem for electronics

Electronics stored in a Los Angeles garage degrade faster than people expect. In the Valley, a closed garage in Woodland Hills or Chatsworth runs extremely hot all summer, and heat kills capacitors and swells lithium batteries — which is a genuine fire risk, not a theoretical one. On the coast, in Venice or Playa del Rey, the marine layer corrodes contacts and connectors.

So the stuff you were saving in case it was worth something usually is not, and anything with a swollen or leaking battery should be flagged when you book so it is handled separately rather than tossed on a pile.

Wipe your data first

This is the step people skip. Before a computer, phone, tablet or even a smart TV leaves your house, sign out of accounts and factory-reset it. A certified recycler destroys drives, but the interval between your hallway and the recycler is not a chain of custody you control.

For a desktop, the safest version is to pull the drive and keep it. It takes four minutes and it removes the question entirely.

Drop-off versus pickup

If the item is small, your car can hold it, and a collection site or event is convenient to you, take it yourself. That is the cheapest route and there are collection points across the county.

The arithmetic changes with size and floor. A 65-inch television does not fit in a sedan. A third-floor walk-up in East Hollywood with a half-landing turn means the drop-off route starts with the hardest part of the job. And a round trip across LA County can eat an afternoon on the 101 or the 405. When any of those apply, a flat price with the carry included resolves it in one appointment.

Booking it

Tell us the screen size for televisions, roughly how many boxes of small electronics there are, and which floor everything is on. There is no stair charge, no long-carry fee and no e-waste surcharge — the published item price covers the carry-out, the transport and routing to the correct facility.

Frequently asked questions