You're standing in your garage, staring at that dusty, hulking 32-inch tube TV from 2004. Or maybe it's a cracked LED flat screen that gave up the ghost during last night’s thunderstorm. It’s heavy. It’s annoying. And honestly, you just want it gone without feeling like an environmental villain. So, you think of the nearest office supply giant. You wonder, does Staples recycle TVs? The short answer is no. They don't.
It’s a bit of a letdown, isn’t it? Especially since Staples is actually pretty legendary in the e-waste world for taking almost everything else. You can walk in with a tangled nest of charging cables, a dead laptop, and three empty ink cartridges, and they’ll take them with a smile. But TVs? That’s where they draw a hard line in the sand.
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Why Staples Won't Take Your Old Television
Staples has one of the most robust recycling programs in the retail space. They’ve recycled over 165 million pounds of technology since they started their program. But TVs are a different beast entirely.
Logistics play a huge role here. Think about the sheer volume. If every person in a suburban neighborhood decided to drop off their old 50-inch plasmas at the local Staples, the stockroom would be a graveyard of glass and plastic within forty-eight hours. Most Staples locations are designed for office supplies and small-form electronics, not the heavy-duty lifting required for home entertainment systems.
Then there’s the "nasty stuff."
Old Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) televisions—the big, boxy ones—are essentially glass boxes filled with lead. We’re talking anywhere from four to eight pounds of lead per unit. If that glass breaks in a retail stockroom, it’s a hazardous materials nightmare. Managing the disposal of those specific components requires specialized facilities that many retail-based recycling partners just aren't equipped to handle at scale for free.
The Staples Recycling Program: What They Do Actually Take
Even though your TV is a no-go, don't write Staples off entirely. They are still a massive resource for cleaning out your tech drawer. If you’re already making the trip, it’s worth knowing what can actually go in the bin.
They are great for "peripheral" tech. This includes:
- Computers and laptops (they’ll even take the chargers)
- Tablets and e-readers like Kindles or iPads
- Monitors (which is confusing, because a monitor looks like a TV, but they usually accept them if they are standard computer displays)
- Printers and desktop scanners
- External hard drives and those ancient flash drives you haven't touched since college
- Mobile phones and GPS devices
It’s kind of a weird distinction, right? A 27-inch computer monitor is fine, but a 27-inch TV is a "no." This usually comes down to the classification of the device and the specific contracts Staples has with its recycling partners, like ERI (Electronic Recyclers International).
Where Can You Actually Take a TV?
Since Staples isn't the answer, you're probably feeling a bit stuck. Don't worry. You have better options than leaving it on the curb with a "FREE" sign that everyone will ignore for three weeks.
Best Buy is the big one. They are one of the few national retailers that will actually take televisions. However—and this is a big "however"—they usually charge a fee. Currently, in most states, Best Buy charges about $29.99 for every TV they take. They also have a limit of two units per household per day. It’s not cheap, but it’s a guaranteed way to ensure the mercury and lead inside that TV don't end up in a landfill.
Another route is your local municipal waste district. Many counties have "E-Waste Saturdays" once a month. Sometimes it's free; sometimes they charge a five-dollar "environmental fee." It’s worth a quick Google search for "[Your County] electronics recycling."
Then there's the manufacturer. Brands like Sony, LG, and Samsung often have "take-back" programs. They partner with third-party recyclers to provide drop-off locations. Sometimes these are even more convenient than a big-box store.
The Hidden Complexity of E-Waste
We really need to talk about why this is such a headache. It's not just corporate laziness. Recycling electronics is incredibly expensive.
When a recycler gets a TV, they don't just melt it down. It has to be manually disassembled. A human being—or a very expensive robot—has to separate the plastic casing, the copper wiring, the circuit boards, and the glass. The glass in older TVs is often infused with lead to block X-rays. Separating that lead from the glass is a chemical-intensive process.
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If the market price for recycled lead or plastic drops, the recycler loses money. That’s why Staples focuses on items with high-value internal parts, like laptops (lithium batteries and gold-plated connectors) and avoids the low-value, high-hazard headache of TVs.
Better Ways to Handle a Working TV
If your TV still works, please don't recycle it.
The most "green" thing you can do is keep it in use. Even if you’ve upgraded to a 4K OLED, that old 1080p LED is gold to someone else.
- Buy Nothing Groups: Check Facebook or Reddit for local "Buy Nothing" communities. People there will literally come to your house and haul it away for free because they need a screen for a kid's playroom or a garage workshop.
- Shelters and Community Centers: Call your local youth center or domestic violence shelter. They often need functioning tech but don't have the budget for it.
- Resale: If it’s a smart TV and less than five years old, it’s probably worth $50 on Craigslist. It’s better to have $50 in your pocket than to pay Best Buy $30 to take it.
Your Action Plan for Tech Disposal
Don't let the "no" from Staples stop your momentum. If you've got a pile of junk, tackle it systematically so it doesn't just sit in your trunk for a month.
First, sort your haul. Put the laptops, old phones, and printers in one box—take those to Staples. You might even get Staples Rewards points for the ink cartridges.
Second, identify the TV. If it’s a CRT (the heavy tube kind), call your local sanitation department first. Many of them have specific rules because of the lead content. If it's a flat screen, check the Best Buy website for your local store's current capacity. They sometimes stop accepting them if their trailers are full.
Third, wipe your data. While this doesn't apply to a basic TV, if you're taking a "Smart TV" or any other device to Staples, factory reset it. You'd be surprised how much personal info stays logged into a Netflix account on a TV or a cached file on a printer.
Ultimately, Staples is a hero for small electronics, but they aren't the solution for your home theater. Knowing that now saves you a back-breaking trip to the store only to be told to turn around and take it home.
Next Steps for You:
Check your TV's manufacturing date on the back panel. If it was made after 2015 and still turns on, list it for free on a local community board today. If it's broken or ancient, use the Earth911 Search Tool to find the closest certified e-waste recycler in your zip code that handles "Televisions." This tool is more accurate than any single retailer's website because it tracks local government facilities too.