This is a gallery of garbage. I'm not going to sugarcoat it, literal garbage. It's also a commentary on various garbage topics. For example, this will be the only place where I ever explain why I quit Twitter. I heard it has a different name now and I don't care. Somewhere in the early 2010s I joined a site named Twitter and sometime in the late 2010s I deleted my account on a site named Twitter. The downfall started with this photo:
I thought Twitter would be a fun way to connect with people who shared common interests. I would come to learn that was a bad idea. I interacted with many fans of retrogaming on Twitter. We can all debate the definition of retrogaming and for the purposes of this article it refers to any system that doesn't include an HDMI port.
One day on Twitter there was a thread about the scarcity of CRT televisions. By coincidence I had to take a few things to the electronics recycling center that same day and snapped the previous picture. I posted it to the thread with a comment about how free & plentiful they are. Right there in that picture is a giant CRT with a "free" sign taped to it, implying it sat on the curb for a while before being dumped here.
This led to the 2nd or 3rd most hate replies/DMs I received about anything. Apparently I personally was responsible for the scarcity of CRT televisions by perpetuating the myth that they were free & plentiful. Shortly after that I decided Twitter was a mistake. Not me joining Twitter, the entire concept of Twitter was a mistake. I deleted my account shortly thereafter. This is the last time I will mention Twitter for the rest of my life.
Since then, I've taken a picture of my community's electronics recycling center on every visit. I go a few times a year to get rid of various junk. I suppose I should provide a little context first. In the area I live it's perfectly acceptable to leave unwanted things on the curb. Usually the garbage collectors take them if some passerby doesn't first. Old TVs though, nobody would take them. In the 2000s it was extremely common to see dozens of old rotting TV on the curb in every neighborhood.
The solution was to create a free electronics recycling center in the parking lot of an existing facility. It's really nothing more than that, a section of pavement where people can drop off unwanted electronics. Anecdotally it worked out great, I almost never see an old TV on the curb now. Instead they end up like this:
From that angle I'm spotting 5 incredibly rare CRT televisions. Also that style of coffee maker appears again later so add it to the "products to avoid" list.
This is from the same visit:
See, that is not an old arcade cabinet. I thought it was too at first. I'm not sure what it was or if it was even electronic. Also pictured, many more CRTs. You may spot the "no" list on a sign in back. Clearly nobody reads that sign, myself included. I understand the original intent of this center was to deal with old TVs and VCRs. Instead people drop off anything with a power cord, and also things without.
There of course will come a day when the supply of functional CRTs is exhausted. Whether that happens before the supply of people who want CRTs is exhausted I can't say. I doubt anyone born after 1990 is yearning for the experience of 1980s childhood. I was a child in the 1980s and am quite happy playing old consoles with an upscaler. People are risking hernias dragging their old CRTs to this dump. I suspect one could get dozens of free CRTs by posting fliers offering to simply take them.
Let's continue on to the next visit. Despite the snow, the parking spots were full so I took this picture when entering from the other side:
I think they need to add a special section for woodgrain items. In theory those two bins are supposed to hold all the donations. As you'll see, that is never the case.
A treadmill is definitely not what they wanted here:
I think I left that giant ball of dead xmas lights. I don't remember for sure because I've left so many balls of dead xmas lights there. (Cue someone complaining about the scarcity of incandescent xmas lights)
I spot at least 9 CRTs on this visit:
Is that an electric organ on the right side? It says Baldwin, I bet that was expensive.
Here's that coffee maker again:
Not literally the same coffee maker of course. They clean this place out about once a week from what I can tell. There are a lot of TVs that look like they are under 10 years old. That checks out, everything is so junky now. I'm sure they are all dead.
This might technically be a violation of the rules that no one follows:
At a minimum it violates the spirit of this being a place for unwanted home electronics. Some business probably saved themselves a couple hundred bucks unloading their old gear here.
Three microwaves in this one:
I can't help but think they all came from the same house. Like someone kept the old ones in their garage until they learned about this dump. If you have kids you go through an average of one microwave a year.
There is one cool old TV here:
There had to be an Atari 2600 or Pong connected to that at some point. Someone will probably find that Fender amp interesting. Also who left fake poinsettias there?
This is when I'll bring up the awful scavenging problem at this site. At first there were signs noting that scavenging is not allowed. Despite that, I've seen scavengers at nearly every visit. Things escalated quite badly after the whole Covid thing. I went to dump something about 10 minutes before closing time. This little parking lot is gated off after a certain time. I didn't snap pictures of this trip because immediately after I got there four trucks that looked like they came off the set of a Mad Max movie rolled into. The people in the trucks also looked like they came off the set of a Mad Max movie after smoking meth. They grabbed broken TVs like contestants on Supermarket Sweep. After less than a minute a conflict broke out and I hightailed it out of there.
On my next trip I saw the recycling center added cameras and signs about license plate readers. My experience must not have been isolated.
I feel for whoever is responsible for this center. They're trying to do a good thing. Several good things really. They want to eliminate the blight of junk on the curbside. That's a fine goal. They also want to recycle unwanted/broken electronics for environmental reasons. That's an even better goal. Instead they have to deal with deterring scavengers. Scavengers are closely related to scalpers, both groups ruin good things and the rest of society has to take extraordinary measures to work around them.
What are the scavengers even doing with this junk? Are they gambling that people are dropping off working items? Of course that's possible but TVs are already comically cheap. So they're gonna get into a full throwdown with other scavengers to sell a used TV for $50? Seems like getting a job is a better plan.
Maybe, maybe, once every few months someone throws out something rare. Like if I saw a TurboDuo in the pile it would be difficult to not grab it. I'd resist the urge though. Just like I resisted the urge in this visit:
That Magnavox DVD/VHS combo would be p-e-r-f-e-c-t for a Y2K-aesthetic room. Hooking-up a PlayStation 2 to that would be redundant. Hooking-up a Dreamcast to it would be so fine. Hooking-up a GameCube to it is also acceptable. If you want a little space frozen somewhere between late 1999 and early 2001 you've got to go with the Dreamcast though. It wouldn't be my first choice but I understand the appeal of that brief era.
If I wanted to build a space dedicated to gaming in a narrow time frame, my top choices are:
Besides, VGA is the best way to play Dreamcast. (Cue emails from SCART fans)
On this visit, everything was neatly organized. I assume they were about to start hauling things away:
Mostly newer stuff in this pic, except for an old-school monitor in the bottom left.
By coincidence, my next trip must have been the day after a haul-away:
The little tiny TV is interesting. It could be alright for connecting Pong or a clone.
And now for a sea of flat screen TVs:
Oh neat. Am I just now noticing the wooden TV with wheels?
It looks like a car backed over one of these TVs:
The chair in the background is a testament to how dumb, lazy, and self-entitled some people are.
I will add photos to this page from time to time. I don't expect to update the site rss every time I do. If you enjoyed this gallery then please stop by again in a couple months.
I was in a random office building one day. I end up in random office buildings all the time. I even wrote a whole game about that. Anyway, at one of them there was an electronics recycling bin in the lobby. It didn't get much use that day.
Normally I don't condone audiobook piracy but in this case I'll let the free market decide.
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