How to get rid of a TV in St. Louis

The short answer

City of St. Louis residents can put TVs out with the monthly BOAT-E collection (batteries, oil, appliances, tires, electronics), included in the $14 per month per unit solid-waste fee. In St. Louis County, check your municipal hauler. In the Illinois Metro East, it is illegal to put covered electronics like TVs in regular trash — they have to be recycled. Or book a flat pickup from any room: under 42 inches $62, 42 to 65 inches $68, 65 inches and up $73.

Missouri side: the City's BOAT-E program

In the City, electronics are part of BOAT-E, the monthly collection for items that cannot ride with regular refuse. It is already paid for through the solid-waste fee billed quarterly on your water bill. Follow the City's set-out instructions for your week.

Practical notes for City households:

• Put it out on schedule, not early. A TV in the alley for a week gets rained on, cracked or picked over.
• Screen face-down or against something soft, so it does not shatter onto the alley.
• Old tube TVs are very heavy for their size. Lift with two people.

St. Louis County: ask your hauler

St. Louis County municipalities and unincorporated trash districts set their own electronics rules. Clayton, Kirkwood, Webster Groves, University City, Florissant and Chesterfield may each handle TVs differently, as may the districts covering Oakville, Mehlville and Affton. We have not found a general Missouri law banning TVs from household trash the way Illinois does, but your hauler may still refuse them or route them separately. Check before you set one out.

Illinois side: TVs cannot go in the trash

If you live in Belleville, O'Fallon, Edwardsville, Granite City, Alton, Collinsville or East St. Louis, the rule is clear. According to Illinois EPA, it is illegal in Illinois to throw covered electronics in regular waste. That list includes TVs, computers, monitors, printers, VCR and DVD players and game consoles. Illinois runs statewide electronics recycling under its Consumer Electronics Recycling Act, effective August 25, 2017, per Illinois EPA.

So in the Metro East, a TV at the curb with the household trash is the wrong move. Use an electronics recycling route or a pickup that recycles it. Military families leaving O'Fallon or Shiloh on summer PCS orders run into this often, because an old TV is rarely worth shipping and the household bin is not an option.

Retailer and resale options

Some electronics retailers take old TVs, sometimes for a fee, sometimes only with a new purchase. Policies change, so check before driving one over. A working flat-screen less than a few years old can sell or be given away, especially in August when students set up apartments around SLU, WashU and the Delmar Loop. Old rear-projection and tube sets do not sell, and nobody wants to carry them.

Before a smart TV leaves the house by any route, sign out of streaming apps and run a factory reset from the settings menu. It takes a few minutes and keeps your accounts off someone else's screen.

Flat pickup prices

A single TV is below the $100 order minimum, so pair it with something. A 55-inch TV and its old entertainment center are $68 + $96 = $164. Two old sets from a basement rec room in Affton, one small and one mid-size, are $62 + $68 = $130. A TV, the stereo and a box of cables and DVD players is $68 + $52 + $77 = $197.

The basement TV problem

Many St. Louis basements still have a big old tube TV or a rear-projection set, carried down in the 1990s and left there when the flat-screen arrived. They are the hardest TVs to move: deep, front-heavy and fragile. Do not try to carry a big tube set up a narrow brick-flat stair on your own. In a South City flat, that stair often has a turn at the top and a low ceiling at the landing, and a tube set dropped there means broken glass on a shared stair. Crews bring it up from any floor with no stairs fee, and we recycle whatever we can.

Wall-mounted TVs and the mount question

Many flat-screens in St. Louis apartments and condos are wall-mounted, which adds a step. Before pickup, decide who is taking the TV off the wall.

• Unplug and disconnect everything: power, HDMI, the soundbar, the cable box. Return the cable box to your provider separately; it is their property.
• Two people to lift. Most mounts release by lifting the TV up and off the bracket after loosening a safety screw or pulling a strap. Large panels flex and crack if one corner takes the weight.
• Decide on the bracket. In a rental, your lease may say whether the bracket stays or the holes need patching. Plaster walls in older City buildings crack easily when anchors come out, so go slowly.
• Lay it flat on a blanket, screen up, or stand it upright against a wall. Never lay it screen-down on a hard floor.

Once it is down, the crew carries it out from any floor with the stand, the soundbar and the box of cables if you want them gone too.

Picking your route

City resident with a TV already downstairs: BOAT-E. County: ask your hauler. Metro East: recycle it, do not trash it. Upstairs, in the basement, mounted on a wall, or part of a bigger cleanout: book a pickup.

Landlords clearing several units at turnover, or offices in Clayton and Downtown replacing screens, can batch them into one visit. Three mid-size TVs left behind in a four-family flat are $68 + $68 + $68 = $204. Property managers can set up one account covering several buildings. Price it from a photo at the instant quote page; same-day when you book by 4 PM.

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