How to dispose of a TV and old electronics in Nashville

The short answer

The per-visit minimum is $75. One small TV on its own is therefore a $75 visit, so send it with something else if you can. A TV plus the stand it sat on is $68 + $96 = $164.

Why you cannot just put a TV at the curb

Electronics are handled differently from household waste almost everywhere, and Metro's rules depend on your service address and building type, so check your current Metro bulky-pickup and recycling guidance before setting anything out.

Assume you cannot. Screens contain materials that landfills do not want, older tube sets in particular, and a TV left at the end of a driveway in Woodbine or Antioch through a Nashville summer is going to get rained on, cracked open, and become a genuine mess rather than a pickup.

The tube TV problem

The single most common electronics call in this city is a CRT. A 32-inch tube set in a wooden cabinet is heavier than the flat-screen that replaced it by a wide margin, and they are all in the same two places: the basement of an older Green Hills or Belmont-Hillsboro house, or the back of a detached garage behind an East Nashville or Sylvan Park bungalow.

They are awkward on stairs, they have no handholds, and they are genuinely dangerous to drop. A tube TV under 42 inches still prices at $62 like any other. The price does not change because it is heavy, and there is no stair charge for bringing it up out of a basement.

Try a recycler first if you have the time

Electronics recycling exists in the metro through drop-off programs and periodic collection events, and the terms change, so look up what is currently accepted and where before you load the car. Two things to expect from any of them.

First, screens are frequently limited or excluded, especially tube sets, and where they are accepted there is often a per-item charge. Second, drop-off means you carry it out and drive it, which for a basement CRT in Woodmont is the whole job.

If you have a working laptop, a phone or a recent monitor, a manufacturer or retailer take-back program is usually the best free route. That does nothing for the 2004 plasma.

Wipe your data before anything leaves

Do this before the truck comes, not after.

• Sign out of accounts on smart TVs and streaming boxes and factory-reset them. A Nashville short-term rental turning over its living room has usually left a Netflix login on the set.
• Pull hard drives out of desktops, or wipe them properly.
• Remove SD cards from cameras and printers. Office copiers store scans, which matters if you are clearing a Berry Hill or Wedgewood-Houston studio office.

We do not wipe devices for you. That step is yours.

Office and studio clearouts

Nashville has an unusual density of small creative and music-business offices in Berry Hill, Wedgewood-Houston, Germantown and along Music Row, and they cycle equipment constantly. When one closes or downsizes the electronics list is predictable.

A four-desk office going out: desk $83 + desk $83 + monitor $58 + monitor $58 + office chair $61 + office chair $61 + commercial copier $97 = $501. Against the ladder, five-eighths of a truck is $513 and a half is $431, so a half truck is worth checking if it all fits.

The living-room bundle

The most common household version of this job is not one TV, it is the whole wall.

TV 42 to 65 inches $68 + entertainment center $96 + box of electronics $77 = $241. That is the same as a quarter truck at $241, which tells you the item pricing is sitting right where it should.

Add the sofa that was facing it and it is $241 + $126 = $367, still under the half truck at $431.

Booking it

Tell us the screen sizes, roughly how many loose devices there are, and what floor they are on. A 65-inch off a wall in a Gulch condo and a tube TV out of a Belmont-Hillsboro basement are both flat-priced and neither carries a surcharge.

If it is a tower, mention the building so the service elevator gets reserved, and if it is a basement, just say so, because we will bring the right number of people.

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