Got a Garage Full of Old Electronics? The Hemet E-Waste Guide: What Counts and Where It Actually Goes
Open the garage of almost any Hemet home and you will find the same shelf: a CRT television too heavy to move, two dead printers, a laptop that has not turned on since 2019, and a box of cables and chargers for devices nobody owns anymore. Every one of those items still works in the same way, by sitting there. None of them has an obvious next step, because electronics do not go out with the trash and they do not go to the curb the way old furniture does.
This guide gives them a next step. It covers what counts as e-waste, where it goes in Riverside County, the tricky items that need special handling, and what a crew like Hemet Haul Masters can take in one visit so you never have to make five trips yourself.
Why E-Waste Piles Up in Hemet Homes
Electronics are the one category of junk with no natural ending. A couch gets worn out and leaves. A dead printer just gets unplugged and replaced, and the old one migrates to the garage “until I figure out where it goes.” Then the summer heat hits, because Hemet summers bake a garage into an oven, and the pile hardens into a permanent fixture. Add a TV upgrade or two over the years and the corner of the garage turns into a small electronics museum.
The second reason is uncertainty. Most people in Hemet sense, correctly, that old electronics do not belong in the black cart, but they are not sure what the right route is. So the devices wait. The good news: Riverside County has a free route for household e-waste, and it is simpler than most people expect.
What Actually Counts as E-Waste
The City of Riverside’s public recycling list gives a useful working definition: e-waste is electronic products nearing the end of their useful life. The examples include computers, televisions, VCRs, stereos, copiers, and fax machines. The term can also stretch to small household appliances with a plug. For your garage pile, that means:
- Televisions: CRT tube TVs, LCD, LED, and OLED flat screens
- Computers and laptops, tablets, smartphones and cell phones
- Monitors, printers, scanners, copiers, fax machines
- DVD and CD players, VCRs, stereos, gaming consoles
- Routers, modems, external hard drives
- Keyboards, mice, remotes, and other peripherals
- The cable and charger drawer: power cords, HDMI cables, USB cables, adapters, old phone chargers
One useful test: if it has a circuit board, a screen, or a rechargeable battery, treat it as e-waste until a recycler tells you otherwise.
The One Rule: Not in the Carts, Not in the Trash
This is the part people get wrong. E-waste does not go in your black trash cart, your blue recycling cart, or your green waste cart. One neighboring city’s household waste guide puts it plainly: under no circumstances should electronic waste be placed in any of the residential carts. The rule is the same for Hemet households because the reason is the same everywhere: old electronics contain lead, mercury, cadmium, and other materials that do not belong in a landfill or a sorting line, where they can damage equipment and harm workers.
Put it in the cart and it either contaminates your recycling or rides to the landfill anyway. Give it the right route and it gets broken down, recovered for materials, and handled safely. That route is free for Riverside County households.
Riverside County’s Free Route: HHW Collections
Riverside County runs permanent and temporary household hazardous waste collection events, and the county’s 2026 collection flyer lists electronic waste as an accepted material: televisions, monitors, computers, and electronic devices are taken free at these collections. The accepted list also covers the neighbors of e-waste: batteries, fluorescent tubes and bulbs, and other universal wastes.
The practical details, straight from the county’s program:
- It is free for Riverside County households. Business waste is not accepted at these events.
- Limit per car, per trip: 15 gallons of liquid waste or 125 pounds maximum. Individual containers should be no larger than 5 gallons and no heavier than 50 pounds. Multiple trips are allowed.
- Keep items in sturdy boxes in your trunk, keep original labels on containers, and do not mix materials.
- The county’s waste hotline is (951) 486-3200, and the collection schedule is posted on rcwaste.org. The HHW collection hotline is (800) 304-2226.
The smartest move is to batch. One trunk load of old electronics per year handles almost any household’s pile, and the drop-off itself takes minutes.
The Tricky Ones: Items That Need Special Handling
Most e-waste is straightforward, but four categories deserve their own notes.
CRT Televisions
The old tube TV is the hardest item in the pile, and it is hard for a reason. CRTs contain leaded glass, they are heavy enough to need two people, and most free drop-off programs treat them as a restricted item. Riverside County’s HHW collections accept televisions, so a CRT can ride along in your trunk load. Never try to dismantle one at home: the materials inside are hazardous, and cracking one open risks releasing them. Keep it whole, move it with help, and let the county route handle it.
Batteries of Every Kind
Rechargeable and single-use batteries are universal waste, not trash. Loose lithium batteries are a genuine fire risk in a trash truck, which is why the county’s accepted list calls them out separately. Pull batteries out of devices when you can, tape over the terminals on loose lithium batteries if you know how, and hand them to the HHW route along with your electronics.
Old Computers, Phones, and Anything With Your Data
The device is junk; the data on it is not. Before an old computer, phone, or tablet leaves your hands, back up anything you want, sign out of your accounts, and do a full factory reset or a secure drive wipe. Deleting files is not enough. A reset takes ten minutes and is the difference between recycling a computer and giving away your tax returns. If the machine still works, donation to a school or nonprofit is worth a look first. If it is dead, the recycler route is the right one.
The Cable and Charger Drawer
This is the drawer everyone has. Sort it with one pass: keep one working cable per device you still own, and let the rest go. Dead cables and chargers are e-waste, and they ride along fine in your HHW trunk load. Metal recyclers also take copper-cored cables, since stripped copper wire has salvage value, but for most households the county drop-off is the simpler move.
What a Junk Hauler Can Take Versus What Needs the County Route
Here is where the line falls for a cleanout:
A junk removal crew can take the bulk of the pile in one visit: the old TVs, the dead computers and monitors, the printers, the stereo, the gaming consoles, the box of cables, the broken small appliances. When the electronics are mixed in with furniture and general junk, which is how they usually look in a real garage, one pickup clears the whole wall at once. That is the point of booking our e-waste and hauling services in Hemet: one visit, everything sorted to the right downstream route.
Two things belong on different routes. Refrigerant appliances like refrigerators, freezers, and window AC units need the appliance removal in Hemet route, because the refrigerant has to be recovered by someone licensed for it. And anything with paint, oil, pesticides, or chemicals goes with the HHW trip, not the hauler: our guide to what junk haulers can’t take in Hemet walks through that list and the county drop-offs for each one.
Estates are the big exception that proves the rule. When a family is clearing a parent’s home, the electronics do not arrive one printer at a time: they arrive as a garage wall of TVs, radios, and devices from forty years of upgrades. That is an estate cleanout in Hemet job, and the crew sorts the electronics out for the right routes while the rest of the house goes in the same visit.
The Saturday-Morning E-Waste Sweep: A Quick Sort Plan
You can clear the whole pile in one morning. Here is the sort:
- Gather everything with a plug or a battery onto one tarp. Everything. The garage, the closets, the drawer of doom.
- Sort into three piles. Working and worth giving away: donate it. Dead but electronic: the county HHW trunk load. Heavy, bulky, or mixed with other junk: the hauler pile.
- Handle the data devices. Back up, sign out, factory reset. Do this before anything leaves the house.
- Pull the batteries into their own bag for the HHW trip.
- Book one trip: either your car to the county collection or one pickup for the hauler pile. Done is the goal, not perfect.
One pass through this list is what separates a garage you can park in from a garage that is also an electronics museum. And if the pile has been growing for a decade, a single pickup clears it in an hour.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I just throw old electronics in the trash?
No, and this is the question people ask most. E-waste does not belong in your trash cart or recycling cart. Electronics contain lead, mercury, cadmium, and other materials that harm the environment and damage sorting equipment when they end up in landfills. In Riverside County, the free route is the county’s HHW collections, which take televisions, monitors, computers, and other electronic devices from households at no charge.
What do I need to do to my smart TV before I get rid of it, and where can I take it?
Sign out of your streaming accounts and run a factory reset to clear stored personal information, then take it to a Riverside County HHW collection. Keep it whole for the trip: never dismantle a TV at home, since the materials inside can be hazardous. If the TV still works, a local charity may take it first.
How do I dispose of a CRT TV?
Keep it intact and move it with two people, since older tube TVs are heavy and contain leaded glass. Bring it to a Riverside County HHW collection event, which accepts televisions, or have it picked up with the rest of your electronics in one hauler visit. Do not break one open or leave it on the curb: it is e-waste, and it needs the recycling route.
What should I do with old chargers and cables?
Sort them once: keep one working cable per device you still own, and recycle the rest as e-waste. They should never go in the regular trash, because they contain copper, plastic, and sometimes hazardous materials. A box of dead cables rides along fine in your HHW trunk load next to the TVs and computers.
Does Riverside County take e-waste for free?
Yes. The county’s 2026 HHW collection flyer lists electronic waste, televisions, monitors, computers, and electronic devices as accepted materials, free for county households at permanent and temporary collections. The limit is 15 gallons of liquid waste or 125 pounds per car, per trip, and the schedule is on rcwaste.org or through the HHW hotline at (800) 304-2226.