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how to dispose of small appliances
Monday, February 17th, 2025 02:32 amWith my 3-day weekend, I've been cleaning out more of the stuff my niece left behind when she moved out. One item is an Easy Bake Oven. At first, I intended to take it to Goodwill, even though it seemed to be missing the pan.
When I plugged it in and turned it on to make sure it worked, the white light in front came on but it didn't seem to be doing anything else. Then I started smelling a nasty smell, like cigar smoke. Not wanting to impose such a nasty smell on anyone who might innocently buy it at Goodwill, I decided to throw it away.
First I thought of wrapping it in an old hoodie which I was getting rid of too. To hide it, I guess, and buffer the outside of it. I would put it like that in another bag, in my trash bin. But I changed my mind, not wanting it to damage the garbage truck (if that is even possible).
Per my county's Solid Waste & Recycling Guidelines, you can schedule a bulk item pickup for large appliances. But not for small appliances. Apparently you have to take the small ones to the landfill yourself. That doesn't seem fair! They'll take something big but not something smaller?
I considered disassembling the unit, and found a video showing how to do it. The oven has a thick plastic shell. The seam is near one side, not in the middle. So taking it apart wouldn't make it much smaller. But in pieces, it would no longer be an appliance; it would be two bulky pieces of plastic. That should probably be ok to put in my bin. I could keep the metal interior parts for metal recycling.
But taking it apart requires an unusually long #10 star bit driver, which I don't have. I suppose I could order one, but gee whiz.
To top things off, my neighbor put out a bunch of junk this weekend. A passer-by with a truck already took away the exercise bike. There's still a coffee table and side table (in fairly bad condition though they could be fixed up), and a shopping cart (that reminded me how after I moved here, it was common to find abandoned shopping carts on the side of the road. I'm glad that stopped happening) and some other things. Unless my neighbor scheduled a special pickup for that stuff, or someone else driving by decides they want that stuff, I don't think it will be picked up. I was tempted to put out the Easy Bake oven by his things. But I already cut the electric cord off it, and I'm pretty sure it wouldn't get taken.
I considered putting the oven on top of my trash bin by the street. That way the people on the garbage truck could decide whether it was ok for them to take or not. But now it's 3am and I don't want to go out there in the dark again.
I've never been to the landfill, so I don't know how dropping something off there works. I used to think I could do that someday if I ever really needed to. But then one time, Qiao and I drove by one of the landfills on the way out of town. The smell was horrible. I could barely stand just driving down that road. So now I never want to drive that way again, and I certainly don't want to drive in to the landfill site. I don't think I could stand it. But actually, I'm not even sure that's the location for dropping off appliances and such. Maybe that place is elsewhere and doesn't smell as bad.
Two years ago (on Valentine's Day, even!) I had hired some people to haul away a bunch of stuff to the dump. I might need to do that again someday, if I have enough to make it worthwhile.
When I plugged it in and turned it on to make sure it worked, the white light in front came on but it didn't seem to be doing anything else. Then I started smelling a nasty smell, like cigar smoke. Not wanting to impose such a nasty smell on anyone who might innocently buy it at Goodwill, I decided to throw it away.
First I thought of wrapping it in an old hoodie which I was getting rid of too. To hide it, I guess, and buffer the outside of it. I would put it like that in another bag, in my trash bin. But I changed my mind, not wanting it to damage the garbage truck (if that is even possible).
Per my county's Solid Waste & Recycling Guidelines, you can schedule a bulk item pickup for large appliances. But not for small appliances. Apparently you have to take the small ones to the landfill yourself. That doesn't seem fair! They'll take something big but not something smaller?
I considered disassembling the unit, and found a video showing how to do it. The oven has a thick plastic shell. The seam is near one side, not in the middle. So taking it apart wouldn't make it much smaller. But in pieces, it would no longer be an appliance; it would be two bulky pieces of plastic. That should probably be ok to put in my bin. I could keep the metal interior parts for metal recycling.
But taking it apart requires an unusually long #10 star bit driver, which I don't have. I suppose I could order one, but gee whiz.
To top things off, my neighbor put out a bunch of junk this weekend. A passer-by with a truck already took away the exercise bike. There's still a coffee table and side table (in fairly bad condition though they could be fixed up), and a shopping cart (that reminded me how after I moved here, it was common to find abandoned shopping carts on the side of the road. I'm glad that stopped happening) and some other things. Unless my neighbor scheduled a special pickup for that stuff, or someone else driving by decides they want that stuff, I don't think it will be picked up. I was tempted to put out the Easy Bake oven by his things. But I already cut the electric cord off it, and I'm pretty sure it wouldn't get taken.
I considered putting the oven on top of my trash bin by the street. That way the people on the garbage truck could decide whether it was ok for them to take or not. But now it's 3am and I don't want to go out there in the dark again.
I've never been to the landfill, so I don't know how dropping something off there works. I used to think I could do that someday if I ever really needed to. But then one time, Qiao and I drove by one of the landfills on the way out of town. The smell was horrible. I could barely stand just driving down that road. So now I never want to drive that way again, and I certainly don't want to drive in to the landfill site. I don't think I could stand it. But actually, I'm not even sure that's the location for dropping off appliances and such. Maybe that place is elsewhere and doesn't smell as bad.
Two years ago (on Valentine's Day, even!) I had hired some people to haul away a bunch of stuff to the dump. I might need to do that again someday, if I have enough to make it worthwhile.