Thrift stores are dealing with a glut of televisions, in part, due to a new state recycling law.
Anyone hoping to take that tube television kicking around the house or basement to the local thrift store better think again.
Thrift stores were already dealing with a glut of behemoth tube TVs as people upgraded to flat screens. Then a new state recycling law went into effect in January, banning landfills from taking the TVs.
Local stores say they'd love to take in the models but without a recycling partner accepting your cast-off televisions is costing them money.
The Habitat for Humanity ReStore near the Lehigh Valley Mall stopped taking TVs in mid June, said Janet Kolepp, store manager. ReStore had a partnership with Free Cycle, a division of GER Solutions, that was recycling the TVs for free.
"They reached their limit of what they could take," Kolepp said. "It would be too costly (for us) to pay to recycle them. We just can't."
Goodwill Keystone Area, which covers 22 counties including Northampton and Lehigh, stopped accepting TVs in March 2012 knowing the law was on the horizon. Goodwill Industries of Southwestern Pennsylvania announced this week it would stop taking TVs Sunday.
"We were getting an overload of donations of large TVs," said Jennifer Ross, spokeswoman for Goodwill Keystone Area.
Goodwill Keystone was recycling so many TVs because no one would buy them and Goodwill recognized the law was on the horizon, she said. Goodwill Keystone would love to find a partner to recycle the TVs so it could accept them.
She noted that Goodwill Keystone stores do accept donations of computers, laptops, printers and computer-related accessories through a recycling agreement with Dell. They can be dropped off at any donation center, Ross said.
Via of the Lehigh Valley did not return a phone message but its website states they do not accept tube TVs at any of their thrift stores. The Salvation Army did not return a message asking if it would change its television policy.
David Mazza, regional director of the Pennsylvania Resources Council, predicts the moratorium on TV donations will be temporary, though he said it may take some time for agencies like Goodwill to adjust to the law.
“Curbside trash collectors are not allowed to pick up the items and leave them behind and this leaves consumers asking where to take the item,” Mazza said of Pennsylvania, which is one of about 20 states with such a law. “It tries to push people to recycle.''
Agencies like Goodwill must get permission from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to recycle a certain number of such items each year.
Goodwill Industries of Southwestern Pennsylvania collected more than 750,000 pounds of televisions last year and got permission to collect twice that much — 1.5 million pounds — this year, only to reach that limit in six months.
Michael Smith, president and chief executive officer of the Pittsburgh-based chapter, said it would cost the agency $125,000 in fees and surcharges to recycle its backlog of televisions. Instead, the agency is holding onto them until the DEP determines the agency’s recycling limit for next year. That’s why Goodwill can’t accept any more televisions for now.
Mazza predicts Goodwill will eventually begin accepting donated televisions again.
"Until then, he said, “The TVs sitting down in the basement — just let them sit there.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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