Green Way to Dispose of Entertainment Media

One surprising discovery I made, while cleaning out my mother’s garage, was several crates full of cassette tapes, mostly of one very obscure Americana-type band my mother had been involved with in the 1980s. In those pre-internet days, she had this idea how she and they would make money selling cassettes via mail-order, but that plan never happened.

Disposing of hundreds of cassettes was just one part of consolidating my parents’ collections of entertainment media. I spent more than a year immersed in their love of music and movies while sorting the “keep” from the “don’t keep.” They never dumped their collections of vinyl records, nor their cassette tapes, nor their VHS tapes. I found stacks of DVDs and CDs to sort, too, some of which were defective or for antiquated computer programs.

Some second-hand entertainment media can be easily sold, at such shops as Third Eye or Bagatelle, both in Long Beach. Any discernible market for cassettes, VHS tapes, and obsolete computer paraphernalia, though, dried up decades ago. Video/audio tapes (and their housing) are made of plastic—including non-recyclable plastic — and metals, including toxic metals, so if you don’t want them, they should be handled as electronic waste, e-waste for short. 

Finding a company that recycles unwanted entertainment media can be difficult, but I searched online and discovered Green Disk, a company founded in 1993 by tech-industry personnel who wanted to minimize the impact of waste associated with computers and related electronics. Their website includes a long list of the electronics they accept for recycling.

Three times in the last year I’ve used Green Disk’s “Pack-IT” self-service for my unwanted entertainment/computer media, moving more than 100 pounds of e-waste out of the house by a method friendly to the environment. Green Disk requires a minimum of 25 pounds for each shipment, and charges a minimum service fee. I budget for disposal of my e-waste, the way I do for other household expenses. When I’ve needed assistance, such as questions about calculating weight or fees, I’ve had very good experiences with the company’s customer service.

I’ve packed all those pounds of unwanted or defective cassettes and VHS tapes, along with unwanted or defective or obsolete CDs and DVDs, into boxes, then used the company’s website to calculate the weight and pay the service fee. The company provides the shipping labels, but I pay postage. The shipment goes to the company’s non-profit partner, Goodwill ESMV in Dayton, Ohio, and they take it from there. I doubt I’m done with using their service yet.