400+ 15" CRT Monitors, and no place to go

September 12, 2006 12:13 PM

I have approximately 400+ Working 15" CRT monitors that I need to dispose off.

We recently upgraded all of our monitors to LCD's and now have a huge stockpile of monitors that are clogging up every empty cube, storage space, and are now leaking out into hallway.

Initially offered to employees for $10 but only had a few takers. Tried our normal sites that we donated too, tried high schools, and other charitable local causes. No one wants 15" monitors and they really don't have any market value. We could recycle them at $10 a pop, but it seems like a waste (and I think the recycling center might turn us down when they see a U-haul truck full of monitors).

I'm in Lansing, Michigan. Anybody have any creative ideas on how to get rid of them?

posted by bleucube to computers & internet (21 comments total)

Try offering them to employees for free.
posted by jamaro at 12:18 PM on September 12, 2006

And then try offering them free on Craigslist and its ilk.
posted by Durin's Bane at 12:20 PM on September 12, 2006

Craigslist. Post in the Free section, and see what kind of takers you get.
posted by kingjoeshmoe at 12:21 PM on September 12, 2006

Donate them to an art school? I can think of a lot of cool shit art students could do with that many monitors.
posted by picea at 12:24 PM on September 12, 2006

Agreed on the art student donation. Give them away with the stipulation that they need to send you photos/info about whatever they put together--which would almost certainly be sweet.
posted by dead_ at 12:26 PM on September 12, 2006

*Nod* We are in the process of returning the money to the people who purchased them and will be offering for free to employees but from a rough survey - it sounds like will will still have 350+ left over.
posted by bleucube at 12:27 PM on September 12, 2006

Freecycle?
posted by Wet Spot at 12:28 PM on September 12, 2006

There are companies that specialize in reclaiming and reselling used office products. Considering that it could cost you up to $25.00 each to dispose of them I would try getting in touch with one of these. eg. www.pcdisposal.com/services.htm
posted by Gungho at 12:33 PM on September 12, 2006

here's the lansing freecycle group (5k members!)

I'm not sure the recycling center _can_ turn you away, by the way.
posted by advil at 12:51 PM on September 12, 2006

Contact local colleges. Lots of broke college students would jump at the chance for free equipment.
posted by chrisamiller at 1:13 PM on September 12, 2006

You might see if http://www.operationhomelink.org or a similar entity could use them, although it doesn't sound like it from the website.
posted by jcwagner at 1:25 PM on September 12, 2006

You might try the National Cristina Foundation.
posted by jacquilynne at 1:38 PM on September 12, 2006

You might try posting to one of the N-TEN mailing lists.
posted by phearlez at 1:47 PM on September 12, 2006

if you got all your lcd monitors from one company or vendor, especially all at one time, i would ask them to take them off your hands...
posted by troybob at 1:48 PM on September 12, 2006

I do not know Lansing, but if therre is a bad part of town, put them in the back of a uhaul, drive to the bad part of town, leave the back slightly ajar overnight and when you come back in the morning, most of them will be gone.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 1:52 PM on September 12, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

Why not check around to see if a disaster relief organization would want them?
posted by devilsbrigade at 2:56 PM on September 12, 2006

You could attempt to focus all 400 electron guns on a vial of tritium to and initiate fusion. Alternatively, zapping squirrels might be fun.
posted by roue at 3:11 PM on September 12, 2006

Loads and loads of low-income people in upsate Michigan (where I grew up). I'll bet many of them would take a monitor off your hands for $10. Contact some of the organizations in the northern counties that help the low-income and ask if they want to help transport them and distribute them.
posted by camworld at 3:19 PM on September 12, 2006

I'll be the lone voice of dissent. Pay to have them recycled. 15" lcds are old, and after being moved around the failure rate will be significant. At my job, we have trouble finding schools to take working 17" CRTs. Many of the onesy-twosie takers will end up trashing them fairly soon, and that's more heavy metal in the waste stream. The cost of transporting CRTs makes them undesirable for anybody non-local.
posted by theora55 at 7:11 PM on September 12, 2006

Seconding the local college students thing - but, call the international offices of the colleges, international students perhaps being (more) stuck using campus computer labs.
posted by mdonley at 8:16 AM on September 14, 2006

I went through a bunch of the suggestion. None really turned out in bulk like we needed - so we ended up paying to have them recycled.
posted by bleucube at 12:18 PM on September 18, 2006