TV and electronics disposal in St. Louis

The short answer

On the Missouri side, City of St. Louis households can use the City's monthly BOAT-E collection, which includes electronics. County households check with their municipality or trash district. On the Illinois side, covered electronics — TVs, computers, monitors, printers, DVD players, game consoles — cannot legally go in regular trash. For a flat pickup from inside: desktop $62, monitor $58, home printer $58, box of electronics $77, TV under 42 inches $62.

What counts as electronics here

For disposal purposes, sort it into three groups.

• Screens: TVs, computer monitors, laptops, tablets.
• Boxes: desktop towers, printers, scanners, DVD and VCR players, game consoles, stereo receivers.
• The drawer: cables, chargers, old phones, routers, keyboards, remotes.

Batteries are separate. Lead-acid batteries are banned from Missouri landfills under RSMo 260.250, and the B in BOAT-E stands for batteries. Pull loose batteries out of devices where you can, and tape the terminals on lithium batteries.

City of St. Louis: BOAT-E

The City's BOAT-E program collects batteries, oil, appliances, tires and electronics monthly, as part of the refuse service covered by the $14 per month per unit solid-waste fee. It is the right answer for a City household with a few devices and time to wait for the collection.

Set items out according to the City's instructions, on your schedule, and protect screens from rain. A monitor in the alley for a week in April is not going anywhere useful. Keep electronics out of the regular alley dumpster, too; that is household refuse, and it is the wrong route.

St. Louis County: it depends

Clayton, Kirkwood, Webster Groves, University City, Creve Coeur, Florissant, Chesterfield, Ballwin and the unincorporated South County districts each have their own trash setup. We have not found a general Missouri consumer-electronics landfill ban like Illinois has, but that does not mean your hauler will take a monitor with the trash. Ask your hauler how they want electronics handled.

Illinois Metro East: the landfill ban

Per Illinois EPA, it is illegal in Illinois to throw covered electronics in regular waste. The list includes TVs, computers, monitors, printers, VCR and DVD players and game consoles, and the state runs electronics recycling under the Consumer Electronics Recycling Act, effective August 25, 2017.

For households in Belleville, O'Fallon, Edwardsville, Granite City, Alton and Collinsville, that means a dead laptop and the old printer cannot just go in the bin. For a PCS move-out near Scott AFB, add it to the move-out list early so it does not end up in the trash on the last day. SIUE students leaving Edwardsville apartments in May run into the same rule with printers and old monitors.

Offices and home offices

Clayton is the region's second business district, with around 46,000 daytime employees, and offices relocate and downsize. Home offices across the metro turn over too. For any computer with storage, wipe or remove the drive before it leaves your hands. That is your job, not the hauler's. Pull the hard drive from desktop towers if you are not sure.

For a commercial building, we email a certificate of insurance within one hour, so the property manager can approve the elevator and dock. Downtown loft offices along Washington Avenue often have freight elevators with booked times, so reserve the slot before picking a two-hour window.

Flat pickup prices

A home office clear-out — desktop, two monitors and an inkjet — is $62 + $58 + $58 + $58 = $236. A small office in Clayton with a commercial copier, a freestanding laser printer and two boxes of electronics is $97 + $71 + $77 + $77 = $322. One monitor alone at $58 bills at the $100 minimum, so add the box of cables: $58 + $77 = $135.

Sell, donate or haul?

Not everything needs disposal. A laptop or monitor under a few years old, working and with its charger, can sell or be given away, especially in August when students and medical residents set up apartments around SLU, WashU and the CWE. Gaming consoles and newer TVs move quickly too. Factory-reset anything with accounts on it first.

Things that rarely find a second home: tube TVs, CRT monitors, inkjet printers more than a few years old, and boxes of mixed cables. Those are the items worth bundling into one pickup. We try to donate usable items when local charities accept them and recycle whatever we can, but donation is never guaranteed.

Old gear that turns up in St. Louis basements

Electronics cleanouts in this city usually start in the basement or the back bedroom, where the old stuff went when something newer arrived. The usual list:

• Tube TVs and rear-projection sets. Deep, heavy and front-loaded. A large old set is a two-person carry up a narrow stair, minimum.
• Beige desktop towers and CRT monitors from the first home computer. Pull the hard drive before it goes, even if you think it is blank.
• Stereo receivers, speakers and turntables. Some of it has resale value to collectors; check before hauling.
• A tangle of cables, chargers, routers and remotes in a box or three. A box of electronics is $77 regardless of what is in it.
• Loose batteries in drawers. Pull them out and keep them separate; tape the ends of lithium cells.

Estate cleanouts in Florissant, St. Louis Hills or Webster Groves often turn up all five at once. Price it as items or, if it is mixed with other junk, as a truck tier. Wipe the drives, pull the batteries, and price it from a photo at the instant quote page.

Frequently asked questions