One category which is pretty big is obsolete electronics. I have decided to recycle much of it instead of trying to find a home for it (by selling it). It will save me time, and each year a higher percentage of it has become truly useless.

One problem: It’s really hard to recycle electronic waste in Houston / Harris County unless you want to pay for it (Office Depot, DataReflects, Best Buy, etc.). Since a recycling program should be able to pay for itself — I am recycling valuable metals here — I don’t feel comfortable paying to have stuff recycled.

This means I have to be in the right place at the right time. Houston has two drop-off locations. One is open two week days per week and one Saturday per month, which the other is open one day per month:

• Houston Environmental Service Center – South
  Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
  Second Saturday of each month from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
  11500 South Post Oak, Houston, TX 77035
• Houston Environmental Service Center – North
  Second Thursday of each month from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
  5614 Neches Building C, Houston, TX 77026

I had a hard time even finding out about these options, and it seems that someone noticed this is a problem and did a study on it: “Free E-Recycling, But Nobody Knows” (pdf).