Can You Put a TV in the Red Bin in Christchurch?
Short answer — no, you really can’t. And to be honest, most TVs these days wouldn’t even fit in your bloody red bin anyway. Years ago when we had those old tube TVs, a 20-inch telly was considered a decent size. You could actually pick the thing up and move it around without too much trouble. Now the average TV people are replacing is 55 or 60 inches, and those things are massive. Even if you wanted to chuck it in the red bin, it’s not going to fit. So people start wondering if there’s some way to make it fit. That’s usually where the problems begin. Pulling a TV Apart Is Usually a Bad Idea Once you start pulling a TV apart, you quickly realise it’s not just a plastic box. Inside there’s: glass panels circuit boards wiring metal frames and a bunch of electronics Before long you’ve got bits of TV spread all over the garage floor. Now instead of one TV to get rid of, you’ve got a messy pile of electronic rubbish sitting there. And Christchurch City Council still doesn’t want that stuff in the red bin. TVs are classed as electronic waste, which means they’re supposed to be disposed of properly. So smashing the thing up doesn’t really solve the problem. The Other Problem — TVs Are Just Awkward Another thing people underestimate is how awkward televisions are to handle. Even the modern flat screens look light until you try to carry one through the house. They’re wide, slippery, and hard to get a good grip on. Older plasma TVs are even worse. I once picked up a 60-inch plasma TV and couldn’t even lift the bloody thing high enough to get it into the back of the truck by myself. That’s usually the moment people realise: “Right… this thing isn’t going in the red bin.” The Bin Lid Has to Close Even if someone somehow managed to squeeze a TV into the red bin, there’s another issue. The bin lid actually has to close properly for the truck to collect it. If the lid is sticking up or something is jammed in the top, the bin can simply be left behind. A big flat screen sticking out of the bin is pretty obvious. And even if it did fit, televisions are still electronic waste, which the red bin isn’t meant for. So the red bin idea usually gets ruled out pretty quickly. So What Are Your Options? If the red bin isn’t an option, people in Christchurch usually end up doing one of a few things. Some take their TV to a recycling centre like EcoDrop, especially if it’s still working. Others load it into the car and take it to the dump, which usually means driving across town and paying disposal fees. And a lot of people simply organise a pickup and have the TV taken away instead of messing around with trailers and dump runs. If you’re standing in the garage staring at an old TV wondering where the hell it’s supposed to go, I explain the options here: Where Can I Dump My Old TV in Christchurch? The Bottom Line So can you put a TV in the red bin in Christchurch? No — and most of the time it wouldn’t fit anyway. Modern televisions are simply too big, and even if you broke one apart it still counts as electronic waste, which isn’t supposed to go in the red bin. That’s why so many old TVs end up sitting in garages and sheds for months — sometimes years — before people finally deal with them. Eventually everyone reaches the same point: “Right… this bloody thing has to go.” Some times we collect not only tvs but maybe a couch or mattress as well in one go. If you want to try and get rid of your old tv for free read this .
