[wejones]

This is a topic that people in big cities or suburbs don't encounter, but some people in rural areas have to deal with. Ie with the throw away attitude we have now adays, where things aren't repaired anymore, people in populated areas just throw stuff like this in the trash and buy something new to replace it. However, since these electronic devices, computers, monitors, TV and other receivers, all have circuits containing lead from solder, and components with other materials that are regulated by the EPA and state environmental agencies, throwing these things away is no longer an easy option for some of us. I'm not sure what the federal regulations are, but here in Maine, you can't throw away electronics like this anymore. Being a normal computer nut, I've replaced my computers and TVs several times over the last dozen years, and had a room which was piled up with old computer monitors, and TVs , etc, but I recently found out that due to state regulations, it was now illegal to just dispose of these things, and our small town is too small and poor to establish any kind of a recovery operation to recycle them. I was told that individuals would have to pay between $5 and $25 per item to dispose of these things through a special company that was permitted to do the recycling (I don't know what they do to the items). Luckily for me, however, I found a loophole in the law that allowed me to take the items to a transfer station that was allowed to take the items at a cost of $90/ton, until mid July, so I gathered up all my old TVs and computer monitors, and drove to the transfer station, and disposed of 400 pounds of electronics for $18.
The sad thing is that half of the things I disposed of could have been fixed. In fact I knew what was wrong with most of the items, but was putting off the repair. However due to the environmental regulations, I was forced to just throw the items away.
Anyway, I just wanted to post to make people aware that getting rid of these old electronics is no longer as simple a matter as they think, even though those in big cities typically have a government solution to the problem.
I have a couple DCII receivers, and I remember that when I bought them, they came with one of those documents that nobody reads, that said something like "this receiver remains the property of General Instruments, and the buyer is permitted to use the receiver...". This was apparently a legal threat to keep people from trying to break into the receiver in an attempt to pirate reception of signals not intended for them, however I now have half a mind to use this statement as a way to dispose of the receivers when they eventually die.... ie by sending them back to General Instruments. However, at least with General Instruments, you can send the receiver to an authorized center where it can be repaired (I just did this with one of my DCII receivers), but these cheap DVB receivers typically don't have any infrastructure whereby they can be repaired.
I eventually see the solution to the problem being making manufacturers responsible for recycling anything they produce, so that when a receiver dies, or becomes obsolete, the consumer then returns it up through the supply chain back to the manufacturer.
Sorry for the long message, but living in a small town where we get to see the problems associated with the disposal aspects of being a consumer, it was just something I had to comment on.
The short answer is that there really isn't any reasonable answer to how to recycle these things.