Getting Rid of Old TVs and Electronics in Boise, Idaho
Old TVs and electronics in Boise can't go curbside. Here's where they can go, what recyclers charge, and when it's worth having them hauled off.
A guy over on the Bench called us last spring to clear out a basement. Standard job, right up until we hit the far corner, where old TVs and electronics had been piling up for what looked like twenty years. Three tube sets stacked like furniture, one with a VCR still sitting on top.
He'd dragged the smallest one out to the curb twice. Both times it was still sitting there a week later, ignored.
It's not that nobody in the valley will take this stuff. It's that the rules are different than they are for a broken chair or a bag of clothes, and nobody tells you that until you've already muscled a 180-pound console TV up a flight of stairs.
Why old TVs and electronics can't go out with the trash
Electronics have things in them that landfills would rather not bury. Older tube and rear-projection sets use leaded glass. Flat screens built before roughly 2010 often have mercury in the backlights.
Laptop and tablet batteries are their own headache. Get one compacted in the back of a truck and it can catch fire.
So curbside service in Boise, Meridian, and Nampa isn't set up to take any of it. Neither are most bulky-item pickups. Put a TV out every Tuesday for a month and it'll sit there collecting dust and, eventually, a warning sticker.
Donation trips people up too. Idaho Youth Ranch and most local thrift stores will gladly take a working flat screen from the last few years. They won't take your 2003 tube TV. There's no way for them to sell it and no way for them to get rid of it, which is exactly the problem you're trying to hand off.
Where old TVs and electronics can actually go in the Treasure Valley
You've got real options here. Which one makes sense mostly comes down to how many items you're dealing with and how much of a Saturday you want to spend on it.
| Option | Good for | What to expect |
|---|---|---|
| Ada County household hazardous facility on Seaman's Gulch | Small batches of e-waste, batteries, small electronics | Free or low cost for Ada County residents; hours are limited, so check before you load up |
| Western Recycling | Metal-heavy items, some electronics | Scrap value on the metal; call ahead about TVs specifically |
| Big-box electronics stores | One or two small items | Free for some categories, a fee for TVs, and size limits apply |
| Donation (Idaho Youth Ranch, local thrift) | Working flat screens, working computers | Free, but they'll turn away anything old or broken |
| Junk removal | Multiple items, heavy sets, basement or upstairs pickups | Priced by volume, and we do the carrying |
Fees move around, so call before you drive. Last time we checked, paid TV recycling around the valley ran somewhere in the $15 to $40 range per set. The big rear-projection monsters cost more, because breaking one down is a genuine chore.
Wipe your data before anything leaves the house
This is the step people skip, and it's the one that actually matters. A legitimate recycler will shred the drive. You just don't want to find out later that the "recycler" you handed it to resold your old desktop instead.
Take ten minutes and handle it yourself. Sign out of your accounts, factory reset the device, and pull the drive if you're the type who'd rather keep it in a drawer.
Worth checking before anything goes:
- Smart TVs, which are still signed into your streaming accounts
- Old phones and tablets living in junk drawers
- Printers with scan-to-email set up
- External drives buried in a box of cables
Routers and modems are a separate thing. If you rented one from your internet provider and never sent it back, don't recycle it. They'll bill you for it.
When it's worth calling a truck, and when it isn't
Honestly? One TV isn't worth calling a truck for. If that's all you've got and you don't mind the drive, run it to a drop-off yourself and keep your money. We'd rather tell you that than take a job you didn't need.
Where we make sense is when the electronics are part of something bigger. A basement full of boxes with two old sets buried in it. An office cleanout with a dozen monitors and a crate of cables. A parent's house where somehow every closet has a printer in it.
On a typical household junk removal job, we pull the electronics out on site, keep them separate from the general load, and run them to a recycler instead of the landfill. That's part of what you're already paying by volume. No surprise line item for the TV.
Our minimum load starts around $150, and most half-truck household loads in Boise and Meridian land in the $350 to $500 range, depending on weight and how far we're carrying it. Stairs matter more than people expect. A 200-pound projection TV coming up from a finished basement is a two-person, twenty-minute job all by itself.
Planning something bigger than a few electronics? Our guide on where to start a basement cleanout walks through staging things so truck day goes quick. And if you just want to know how to set up for a pickup, here's what to have ready.
The bottom line
Old electronics aren't hard to get rid of in the Treasure Valley. They're just not curbside, and the old tube sets cost a little money to retire no matter which route you take.
Small pile and a free afternoon? Drive it yourself. Heavy sets, a basement full of boxes, or a whole house of dead tech? That's when a household junk removal crew is worth the call.
Give us a ring at (208) 593-2877 and tell us what you're looking at. If it's something you can knock out on your own, we'll say so. If it's not, we'll get you on the schedule.
Need Help With Household Junk Removal?
Top Shelf serves Boise and the Treasure Valley with professional junk removal, cleanouts, and demolition services.
