How to get rid of a TV in Jacksonville

The short answer

Price is by screen size, not by technology. A deep glass CRT and a flat panel of the same diagonal cost the same. Carry-out and proper disposal are included, there is no e-waste surcharge, and there is no stair fee.

Minimum $75 per visit. A single small set at $62 will bill $75 on its own, so it is worth adding the monitor, the old stand or a box of cables while the truck is there.

Why Jacksonville kills so many televisions

We collect a lot of sets that were working fine two weeks earlier, and the reason is meteorological.

Florida gets more thunderstorm days than anywhere else in the country, and Northeast Florida sits squarely in that pattern from roughly June into September. A lightning strike does not have to hit your house to kill a television - a nearby strike induces a surge on the line, and that is enough. Routers, garage door openers, pool pumps and irrigation controllers go the same way.

Then there is the second wave, which catches people out. After a storm outage, the moment the grid comes back up is its own hazard, and a lot of the equipment we haul after a named storm survived the wind perfectly well and died on restoration.

Two further local factors. Salt air near the ocean at Jacksonville Beach, Neptune Beach and Atlantic Beach corrodes connectors and boards on anything in a garage, lanai or outdoor setting. And humidity does the same slowly to electronics stored in unconditioned space - which in a city with no basements means the garage, the shed or the Florida room.

CRTs and rear-projection sets

Two relics still turn up constantly in Jacksonville homes, and both are worth handling properly rather than dragging.

Glass CRT televisions. The deep boxy ones. Heavy for their size, awkward to carry, and the category most likely to be refused by a general recycler or a retailer take-back. The glass is the reason for the handling rules, which is also the reason you do not want one cracking open on your driveway.

Rear-projection big screens. The enormous cabinets from the early 2000s that still sit in family rooms across Arlington, Lakewood, Mandarin and the older Southside neighborhoods. These are firmly two-person lifts, they do not come apart helpfully, and they are usually wedged into a corner with a decade of cables behind them.

Both are priced by screen size like anything else. If a rear-projection cabinet is going down a flight of stairs, mention it when you book - that is route planning, not a price change.

Wall-mounted sets

Very common now, and the division of labor is simple.

We take the television down off the bracket and take the bracket too if you want it gone. What we do not do is patch and repaint the wall - that is a decorating job, not a removal one, and it matters because a large mount in drywall leaves four substantial anchors behind.

Two practical notes. If the set is above a fireplace or high on a wall, say so when you book so we bring the right access. And if the cabling was run inside the wall, decide in advance whether you want it pulled or left in place, because pulling it opens the wall further.

Wipe it before we arrive

Once the truck leaves, it is gone. Five minutes now:

• Sign out of every streaming service on the set. A modern smart TV holds live logins to accounts with payment details attached.
• Factory reset it. That also clears the stored Wi-Fi credentials.
• Disconnect it from your network in your router's device list afterwards.
• Check any attached box or stick - streaming devices, games consoles, a media player behind the TV. Those hold accounts too.

This matters more here than in most places. Jacksonville has a large military and defense-contractor population, and household devices with live logins are not something to hand off casually.

The free and cheap routes

Retailer take-back. Several national electronics chains run in-store recycling. Small electronics are usually straightforward; televisions frequently have size limits and often a fee, and older CRTs are commonly excluded outright. Policies change often, so ring the specific store before you load the car.

Municipal drop-off. Duval operates facilities for electronics and household hazardous waste. Check the city's current locations, hours and accepted-item list. Two practical points in a county of roughly 875 square miles: the drop-off is probably not near you, and a 65-inch set does not go in a sedan.

Selling or donating. A working flat panel of recent vintage does move on Marketplace. A CRT does not, and neither does a rear-projection cabinet - do not spend three weeks finding that out.

Curbside. Usually the wrong answer. Televisions are commonly excluded from the ordinary residential stream because of the materials in older displays, so check your city bulk-waste page rather than assuming your bulky day covers it.

Why the swale is the wrong place for a TV

Much of Jacksonville has open grassed drainage swales rather than curb and gutter. Putting a television in one is bad on three counts.

It may not be collected at all, in which case it stays. It blocks stormwater in a city that gets intense afternoon rain through the entire summer. And a glass CRT sitting in a wet swale for a week, getting knocked by a mower or a passing vehicle, is exactly the scenario the handling rules exist to prevent - once it breaks, you have a mess on your frontage that nobody wants to pick up, including you.

If you do set one out during a valid collection window, put it on the concrete apron, upright, and as close to collection day as the rules allow.

Worked totals and booking

The media wall. TV 42 to 65 inch $68, entertainment center $96, box of electronics $77. $68 + $96 + $77 = $241 - which is exactly the quarter-truck price, so book whichever suits.

Two sets and a monitor. A 65-inch-plus set $73, a set under 42 inches $62, a computer monitor $58. $73 + $62 + $58 = $193.

Two old CRTs from the garage. 2 × $62 = $124.

To book, tell us the screen sizes and how many. If it is wall-mounted, say so. If you are in a Southbank or oceanfront condo building, check whether the association needs a certificate of insurance and ask us early - we will get it over ahead of the window.

Frequently asked questions