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Citizen complaint of the day: The South End isn't supposed to be where TVs go to die

Dead televisions

A concerned citizen alerts the city to the dozen TVs and computer monitors that have apparently been sitting on W. Springfield Street for a month now. The city responds this morning that a DPW pickup has been dispatched to remove them.

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Comments

Heck, this is a regular occurence on many a street in East Boston. I guess it is OK in shitty Eastie but South End???? The Horror!

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I didn't post this because it was happening in the South End, but because of the sheer number - that's a lot of monitors and TVs in one place! If the complaint had been about East Boston or Roslindale, I would've used the same headline, just with a different neighborhood name.

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all you have to do is call the city, the DPW will pick it up on the next scheduled trash day. Easy breezy.

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I saw the same phenomenon happen in Brighton this past September. A clear sign of the changing times and technology. Used to be you rarely saw a television out on the curb, and if one did go out, it was quickly scooped up. Now that everyone is making the switch to flat-screen and HD sets, the old tubes are seriously obsolete. The city hasn't done a great job of keeping up with the times, however, and it seems that the regular trash crews don't pick up this "hazardous" waste. I'm guessing this is probably the worst year for this, but there will still be some tubes trickling out onto the curbs for a few years; I'm keeping mine until the TiVo dies and forces a total upgrade! :)

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There's a good reason the regular trash pickup won't take these. Those big vacuum tubes can be a real threat when they implode. The glass shards are ejected at high speed, and in addition to them being nasty sharp, they are also coated in heavy metals. Having them picked up special makes good sense. Plus the recycle value is potentially high enough that grabbing them before they get mashed up may make fiscal sense.

The city does a pretty good job informing people that special pickup is free for residents - mailings, emails, notices in all sorts of places, etc. Some people are just clueless/over-entitled.

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I mean the quotations as a sort of emphasis or catagorization, not because I was questioning the designation. My apologies for being unclear in my intent.

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Also, the screen has lead in the glass, to shield you from the CRT's radiation. The lead is itself harmful if it ends up in an incinerator or landfill.

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exclude TVs and CRTs from their curbside pickup programs. And I understand that thrift stores like Salvation Army and Goodwill no longer accept them as donations either, even if they're in perfect working order.

When I did a house clean-out project a couple of years ago, I had an old freezer, an older air conditioner, and an even older console TV all on the verge of failing and not worth reparing. The Town of Wakefield gladly issued me the $20 curbside pickup permits for the freezer and air conditioner - both of which contained the older nasty freon coolant.

As for the TV, the Town told me they don't do curbside pickup, but that I needed to dispose of it at one of their designated "haz-mat" days. Provided of course, if I brought the TV to the location myself and also paid the Town $50 for a special permit to get rid of it. Ended up calling a local disposal service instead. They picked it up the TV at my house and charged me only $35 to haul it away.

So, at least in Wakefield, a CRT is apparently too hazardous for the trash service to deal with, but a chemical like freon isn't. Talk about twisted logic here.

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As somebody mentioned, those orange tags on the TVs/monitors in the photo are from the trash guys, saying they won't be picking them up, ever. And as somebody else mentioned, to get them picked up, you have to call the DPW (they also have a form online), which then sends out a separate truck to get them.

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for residents (businesses pay small fee I think).

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I was able to get rid of my freezer and air conditioner by putting them by the curb in front of my house and having the Town pick them up. In Boston, you can get rid of a TV or a CRT in the same manner. Yes, a permit is required in both the Wakefield and Boston cases, and it's not REGULAR pickup, but I believe this still qualifies as a curbside pickup program.

The points of my post were a) most communities don't allow for any TV or CRT pickup at all, and b) that I was easily able to get rid of intact appliances that have hazardous liquid chemicals inside by obtaining a permit and placing them at the curb, but wasn't able to dispose of an intact TV with equally hazardous, but solid, materials in the same manner.

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without charge, but you have to call 311 at least 24 hours in advance.

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So the Great Television Migration season begins again.

I caught my own TV trying to sneak out the other night so I tied its rabbit ears to the wall, whacked it on the head with a paper towel roll and said "NO, bad TV. BADDDD TV."

That'll teach it.

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were all up in arms about the possibility of a Dunkie's opening, but God forbid they recycle their old electronics.

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Calm down. They opposed the Starbucks as well. Is your neighborhood perfect?

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Yes, anon(not verified),yes it is. I live in Belmont, where we have 2 Dunkie's within walking distance of each other. We also have a Starbucks and of course we have Ohlin's and Linda's Donuts.

Ohlin's and Linda's are as close as you can get to donut heaven. Ask my cardiologist.

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You'll hear no argument from me on this one! Cute section of Belmont with a bunch of interesting mom & pop type shops which we patronize several times a year.

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You must be joking, of course.

Obviously, someone dumped all those TVs and CRTs in one spot and took off.

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But it looks like they do have city pickup tags on them...

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the city is good about picking up monitors, appliances, etc. they just have to be notified. I suspect that those yellow pieces of paper on some of those TVs are from the garbage men and explain how to contact the city to that the stuff needs to go.

Info is here:

http://www.cityofboston.gov/publicworks/Recyclinga...

I email the city here:
http://mayors24.boston.gov/Ef3/General.jsp?form=SS...

they email back that they will pick up in front of my house on such-and-such a date.

Putting a "free works" sign on the item gets rid of item even faster!!

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Televisions and computer monitors are considered hazardous waste. They will not be picked up during the regular trash pickups. Call DPW and you will given the date when a truck will pick up the equipment.

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...except in Chelsea, the homeless/trash-picking patrol rips anything metal out of the inside to sell to scrapyards, rendering them both useless and even more gross to look at.
Thank the lawdy fo' the Citizen's Connect app, or they'd probably all still be there!

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It is now politically incorrect to refer to "homeless/trash-picking patrol". Don't you know they are "gleaners", a well respected profession?

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Citizen's Connect works in Chelsea? Mighty neighborly of owah mayuh.

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