My new project: getting rid of stuff

[dreamshark]

This is not exactly a NEW project, just one that I keep going back to when I need  opportunities for some small sense of accomplishment. First, of course, I have to make a list so I have something to check off. Then I have to update my voluminous notes files. I have a lot of notes on how to get rid of stuff, which probably tells you how often I start and restart this same project. Then comes the not so fun part, pulling things out of closets and back rooms and garages, vacuuming off the dust, and sorting it into boxes. Then matching it up with the notes. Is this:

1. Something that somebody else might conceivably want? 
2. Recyclable trash?
3. Ordinary trash?
4. Hazardous waste?

Today was Hazardous Waste Day #2. You'd be surprise how many things turn out to be Hazardous Waste. Old landline telephones, for instance. NOBODY wants them, even electronic recycling places. I found one electronics recycler online (Techdump, not recommended) that would take them (reluctantly) for a purportedly small fee ($.50/lb). But it was a bait and switch - when I got there they wanted $10 PER PHONE, and I had a box of 5 or 6. So I drove to the nearest Hennepin County Hazardous Waste Dropoff facility, which was Brooklyn Park because I was already way the hell up in the northwest corner of the metro, and they took them for free. Once I got there, it was quick and easy - no line at all. And kind of attractively located in the midst of a pretty patch of prairie, so that was nice.

But that was actually Hazardous Waste Day #1, a week ago. Today I was focused on the most dire of all hazardous household waste, fluorescent light bulbs. There was a box of 4-foot fluorescent tubes in the garage when we bought the house 35 years ago, and today I finally got rid of them, along with 2 or 3 burned out Compact Fluorescents (CFLs). BTW, did you know that you can't throw CFLs in the trash because they contain mercury? Somehow that aspect is rarely mentioned when eco-activists are urging you to replace all your lightbulbs with CFLs. Even LED bulbs have something sinister in them and are supposed to be recycled as hazardous waste. Just in case you didn't know. Anyway, the amazingly accommodating Minneapolis Residential Recycling Program (which takes old CRT TV sets!) will not take them. And not even the South Transfer Station (which takes tires!). So it's off to the Hazardous Waste Depot with the light bulbs.

I also dumped about 5 lbs of old alkaline and lithium batteries, 2 swollen phone battery cases that had semi-exploded when the batteries wore out and were probably a fire danger, 3 expired fire extinguishers (sadly no longer in condition to put out the potential battery fires, which fortunately didn't occur), and a box of random cans of toxic substances from the garage. 

The Bloomington site is much closer to my house than the Brooklyn Center one, but OMG the traffic! It wasn't even 3pm, but southbound 35W was already impassible. Note to self: try to get out of the house before noon on the next trip. Anyway, that's done.

Comments

[bibliofile]

Huh, our St. Vinnie's thrift stores accept landline phones, or at least they used to. I'd buy one for the kids at WisCon to take apart (a previous kids programming person started that program item, and it was such a good idea).

Good job on getting all that stuff out of the house, and safely! Yeah, I knew about CFLs. I hadn't known about LED bulbs yet, but that's because I haven't had to deal with any dead ones yet.

Ah yes, 'tis the season for road construction. Never helps with the traffic.

[carbonel]

Congratulations on getting that all taken care of.

When I moved into this house, there was a bunch of leftover paint cans and various other things, including a box about the size of a cereal box mostly full of asbestos. Yes, the pure quill, as it were. I have no idea what it was doing in my garage in 2003.

I hauled it all the to Bloomington site. They took everything but the asbestos. I got the feeling they would have preferred to kick me and it out with UNCLEAN notes hung everywhere, but instead they put the box in a giant Ziploc-type bag and told me to take it to the Brooklyn Park place. I know it's evil stuff, but how much danger is it when sitting passively in a box? Eventually I was able to foist it off on Greg Cotton when he was heading that way.

[dreamshark]

You win - you found something that even the Hazardous Waste Dumps hate more than fluorescent bulbs. The subtle differences between the 2 Hennepin County sites is hard to navigate. Thanks for the reminder to double-check every item against the fine print on the websites before setting out.

[quadong]

I have fifteen or twenty CFLs waiting for the time that the periodic free drop-off site in the State Fair parking lot lines up with when I'm in town. Yes, they are bad. I went through an unfortunate phase of thinking they were good from about 2002-2008. Then I switched to a mix of incandescent and LED, and just as my last CFL died, I moved to new apartments where the landlords had installed all CFLs. At least I don't have any on the shelf anymore, just ones securely in service. (They only break and release mercury when you handle them, so these only have one handling left.)

I suspect that LED bulbs are not fundamentally hazardous waste, but rather there are so many varieties that pack in unnecessary electronics (so you can control them with your phone or whatever) that they have to tell you that they are all hazardous. As far as I understand it, the actual diode that emits light is pretty benign. I could be wrong.

[dreamshark]

I think that some hardware stores, including the Big Box ones like Home Depot, recycle CFLs, but not the long tubes.

Here's a list of Minnesota hardware stores that purportedly take them.

https://www.xcelenergy.com/staticfiles/xe-responsive/Energy%20Solutions/Residential%20Solutions/Rebates%20&%20Energy%20Savings/MN-Lighting-Recycling-Coupon.pdf

[marahmarie]

Old landline telephones, for instance. NOBODY wants them

But eBay does:

For sale: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1311&_nkw=landline+phone&_sacat=0

Sold: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=landline+phone&_sacat=0&rt=nc&LH_Sold=1&LH_Complete=1