How to get rid of a TV in San Antonio

The short answer

Three prices, by screen size, regardless of technology.

That covers the carry-out and the recycling routing. A tube set, a rear-projection console and a modern flat panel of the same nominal size all price the same, even though one of them weighs six times what the others do.

Minimum per visit is $75, so a single small TV still prices at $75. Add the stand, or the monitor in the closet, or the microwave.

Why you cannot just bin it

Screens are handled as their own waste category everywhere in the metro, and for good reason.

Older CRT tube sets and rear-projection units contain leaded glass, several pounds of it in a large tube. Flat panels contain circuit boards, and some contain batteries in the remote-side electronics and backlight components. None of that is meant to go to landfill, and none of it goes in an apartment dumpster or a general curbside pile.

Texas requires television manufacturers to offer take-back recycling for their own products, so it is worth checking what your brand currently runs. Those tend to be mail-in or drop-off programs with conditions attached, and terms change. They are also a non-starter for anything you cannot lift.

The three TVs San Antonio households actually have

The current one, which is fine and is not the subject of this page.

The previous one, a 40-something-inch flat panel that got demoted to a bedroom when the big one arrived, then demoted again to the garage. It still worked when it went out there. It has now spent several summers in a space that runs well past 100 degrees, and the capacitors have not enjoyed it. That is $62 or $68 depending on size.

The old one, a tube set or a rear-projection console from the era when a den got built around watching the Spurs. It is enormous, it is in the garage or under a tarp on a patio, it weighs a couple of hundred pounds, and it has been waiting for a plan since about 2012. Same $62 to $73, because it prices on screen size.

Getting rid of all three is one visit.

Wipe it before it leaves

Smart TVs are the part people forget. A modern set is signed into streaming accounts, has a Wi-Fi password saved, and often has a voice assistant configured.

Before it goes: sign out of every app individually if you can, then run a factory reset from the settings menu, then confirm the network credentials are gone. A factory reset alone usually handles it, but the two-step is worth the extra minute.

If there is a streaming stick or a console plugged into the back, remove it, because it will go with the TV otherwise and it holds accounts too. Those count as a box of electronics at $77 if they are also going.

Moving a big panel without breaking it

If the TV still works and you want it to keep working, this matters.

A large flat panel travels flat or upright and never leaned against something, because a panel that flexes across the diagonal cracks internally with no visible impact. Two people, hands on the frame rather than the screen, and no pressure on the face. Nobody has the original box.

A tube set or rear-projection console is the opposite problem. It does not break, it just crushes things, including hands and feet. The weight is high and forward, which is why they tip. Two people minimum, and not down a driveway in July.

Carry-out is included either way, so if the set is on the wall or in the garage and you would rather not, leave it where it is.

The wall mount and what is behind it

A mounted TV comes off its bracket first, which is a two-person job on anything over about 50 inches.

The bracket itself stays unless you take it down, and if you do, expect the wall to need patching. In the newer two-story builds out around Alamo Ranch, Cibolo and the far North side, mounts are often on a media wall with the cabling run inside, so pulling the bracket means dealing with the cable pass-through plate too.

In older ranch houses inside the loop, the mount may be on a masonry or plaster wall with anchors that are not coming out cleanly. Most people leave the bracket and let the next owner deal with it.

The routes before you pay

Sell or give away a working modern set. Flat panels under a few years old move well, particularly late spring through August when families rotating through Joint Base San Antonio are furnishing rentals in Schertz, Converse and Universal City, and again in late summer around UTSA and St. Mary's.

Retailer trade-in or counter recycling. Some electronics retailers accept small devices at the counter and run trade-in on anything with residual value. You deliver it.

Manufacturer take-back. Worth checking, generally mail-in or drop-off.

City drop-off. Electronics are handled separately. Check the current accepted list and locations on your city's solid waste page.

Donation. A working flat panel is genuinely useful to a charity resale shop. Nothing will take a dead set, and nothing at all will take a tube set.

Doing the whole wall at once

The TV rarely leaves alone, and the crossover is worth checking.

TV and the stand it sat on: 42 to 65 inch TV $68 + entertainment center $96 = $164.

The whole den: TV $68 + entertainment center $96 + box of electronics $77 = $241, which is exactly a quarter-truck load at $241. Either way, same number.

Adding the old tube set from the garage: $241 + $62 = $303, past the quarter truck, so the load price of $241 applies instead.

That last line is the useful one. Once the load is priced, the garage TV rides along for nothing.

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