How can I recycle a television in Tower Hamlets without spending money?

alexanderalexander

I have a fairly big knackered old TV which I would like to recycle (too worn out to be Freecycled). Unfortunately I can't find any way of doing it without spending money:

• Tower Hamlets council website suggests taking it to their recycling site. I don't have a car and even if there was a direct bus route there (which there isn't) it'd be difficult to take a big TV on the bus.
• I could request a bulky item collection from the council and they would recycle it -- but that costs £15 and as I live in a flat I'm not sure how collection would work (nowhere obvious to leave it out).
• A retailer "take-back" scheme has been suggested but (i) I think I'd have to buy a new telly to qualify, which I don't intend to do and (ii) the web link to find a participating retailer doesn't work, so I don't know if there are any near me.

At the moment it looks like the only free and easily available disposal option is to chuck it in the big communal wheelie bin for my block of flats and it'll go to landfill.... but are there any recycling options which won't cost me a great deal of time or money?

Ken68

Take it apart, cut down to size, and dispose of the metal and plastic in the normal way. If a cathode ray tube, smash it into a box, dispose as glass.

Ectophile

I'd be very careful if smashing a TV tube. They are vacuum-filled and will implode when smashed - potentially spreading bits of broken glass everywhere.

Ken68

The IMplosion would keep the glass within the box. Maybe further contain it in a plastic bag , then the box. Dispose in the landfill bin.
This minimizes the set being sent to, say India, to be picked apart by children.

EricMears

Ken68 wrote: »

The IMplosion would keep the glass within the box. Maybe further contain it in a plastic bag , then the box. Dispose in the landfill bin.
This minimizes the set being sent to, say India, to be picked apart by children.

Definitely use a plastic bag ! Glass splinters are bad enough but the phosphors from inside the screen are even nastier.

Ken68

My brother, a former television retailer, until recently was getting a few quid for each used set. These were exported and there was a preference for the type of casing (either wood or plastic, not sure which).
Heresay, but the sets still go abroad but via a government approved set-up.