Memphis has no curbside route for a television or a computer: the city's own Waste Wizard says "there is no curbside collection for this item" for both, and its convenience centres never mention electronics. The one public facility, the Memphis and Shelby County Household Hazardous Waste Facility at 6305 Haley Road, takes one computer, one monitor and one keyboard per household every 30 days on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 8 am to 1 pm, and refuses televisions outright. That leaves Best Buy ($29.99 per TV or monitor at two Memphis stores), Goodwill Memphis (computers free, flat-screen TVs accepted, big-back sets refused) and the city's November recycling drive. Tennessee has no e-waste law and no landfill ban, so nothing stops you binning a TV, but the routes below keep the lead and glass out of the ground. Every address, hour and rule below was checked against the source on 26 August 2026.
Memphis and Shelby County Household Hazardous Waste Facility
| Detail | |
|---|
| Address | 6305 Haley Road, Memphis, TN 38134, off Farm Road between Walnut Grove and Mullins Station, (901) 222-7729 |
| Hours | Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, 8 am to 1 pm; closed 26 November and 24 December 2026 |
| Who | Shelby County residents only; staff check your car tag and ZIP code (military members exempt from the tag rule). No business waste |
| Electronics | Computers, monitors, keyboards, mice, printers and cell phones, with a limit of one complete computer, one monitor and one keyboard per household every 30 days; the county's not-accepted list names televisions and microwaves |
| Limits | 100 pounds or 15 gallons per vehicle, one visit a month; bring items in a clear tote or box, not garbage bags |
| Cost | No charge is listed; the facility is part-funded by a state grant |
The county's page explains the TV refusal: a television "contains a capacitor that sends out an electrical spark that ignites flammable substances". The city's own Waste Wizard still sends TVs here, so ignore that and use one of the routes below. The city's hazardous-waste web page shows old Tuesday and Saturday hours and 2022 holidays; the county, which runs the site, is the one to trust.
What the City of Memphis will and will not collect
Twice a month the city collects "outside the cart" bulk waste such as tree limbs and furniture, and residents can take one load a month to the Collins Yard Convenience Center at 304 Collins Street or 3207 Farrisview Boulevard (Friday to Sunday, 9 am to 3 pm, MLGW bill and photo ID required). Neither the solid-waste page nor the 30-page Clean City Guide mentions electronics at all, and the Waste Wizard says televisions, desktop computers and peripherals have no curbside collection and sends you to Haley Road. In practice that means a TV left at the kerb may be taken or may be left; the city does not promise either.
Memphis City Beautiful, the city agency at 664 Adams Avenue ((901) 636-4410), ran a recycling drive for America Recycles Day on 22 November 2025 at the McFarland, Whitehaven and Hollywood community centres, 9 am to noon, taking computers, tablets, keyboards, printers, phones, audio equipment, cameras and games consoles but not TVs or appliances. No 2026 date had been published when we checked; look on memphistn.gov in October.
Retail drop-off in Memphis: Best Buy, Goodwill
| Store | Takes | Cost | Limits |
|---|
| Best Buy, 2755 Germantown Parkway (Store 165) and 5821 Poplar Avenue (Store 1399); the Winchester Road store has closed | Desktops, all-in-ones, printers, hard drives, cables, routers, DVD and Blu-ray players, speakers and most small electronics free; TVs and monitors | Small items free; TVs and monitors $29.99 each in Tennessee (flat panels up to 50 inches, tube TVs up to 31 inches; Insignia and Dynex free) | Three items per household per day, including two TVs or two monitors; residents only, no business equipment; haul-away $49.99 with a replacement product |
| Goodwill Memphis, any retail location | Computers and accessories of any brand, working or not, through the Dell Reconnect programme; TVs, microwaves and small appliances | Free, with a donation receipt | Will not take "older model televisions (big back)", meaning CRT sets; use the store finder on goodwillmemphis.org for the nearest location |
Staples' recycling page and its Memphis store pages could not be reached on the day we checked, so its usual free computer and phone take-back is not confirmed for Memphis; ask in store before you rely on it. Tennessee's environment department lists Best Buy, Office Depot and Staples as retail programmes and Apple, Dell, HP and Panasonic as manufacturer programmes.
Private recyclers: none take walk-in household drop-offs
ER2, the R2-certified recycler headquartered in Memphis, stopped taking residential drop-offs on 1 January 2020 and says so on its site. Omega Electronics Recycling (Jackson, TN), Waste Solutions on E. Raines Road, ReWorx, STS and TeleTraders all serve businesses, schools and healthcare only. If a listing tells you a Memphis recycler takes household electronics at the door, check their site first; we found none that does.
What Tennessee law says
Tennessee has no consumer e-waste law and no landfill ban on electronics. The Department of Environment and Conservation's BOPAE page (batteries, oil, paint, antifreeze, electronics) relies on county convenience centres and retail take-back, and Best Buy's state-by-state fee list does not mention Tennessee at all, which is why the $29.99 charge applies. The state's mobile household hazardous waste service, funded by a $0.95 per ton landfill surcharge, no longer accepts electronics and does not visit Shelby County, because the county has the permanent Haley Road site.
TVs in Memphis
- Flat-screen under 50 inches: Best Buy for $29.99, or free at Goodwill Memphis.
- Tube TV under 31 inches: Best Buy for $29.99; Goodwill and Haley Road both refuse them.
- Tube TV over 31 inches: Best Buy's standalone haul-away or a paid junk hauler; there is no free route in Memphis.
- Working TV: sell it or donate it to Goodwill.
Before you drop off a computer or phone
Sign out of Apple, Google, Microsoft and Samsung accounts, back up, then factory reset; pull or overwrite an old spinning hard drive. Haley Road and Goodwill make no data promise. Our factory reset guide covers every major device.
Is it worth money instead?
A working phone, tablet or laptop under about six years old usually has a buyer. Check this month's buyback prices in the Trade-In Price Index or run your model through the Device Value Checker before recycling it. Broken devices can be priced with the Scrap Value Calculator.
Nearby cities
Sources
- Shelby County, Household Hazardous Waste page, 2026 brochure and accepted/not-accepted lists (shelbycountytn.gov), address, hours, residency check, electronics limits, TV exclusion, 2026 closures, checked 26 August 2026
- City of Memphis, Solid Waste page, Recycling page and Waste Wizard entries for television, desktop computer and computer peripherals (memphistn.gov, recycle.memphistn.gov), checked 26 August 2026
- City of Memphis, Clean City Guide 2025 (bulk waste rules, Collins Yard) and the America Recycles Day recycling drive notice of 22 November 2025, checked 26 August 2026
- Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, BOPAE page, Household Hazardous Waste Program page and 2026 HHW schedule, checked 26 August 2026
- Best Buy, Electronics and Appliances Recycling program page (Wayback capture of 2 August 2026, because bestbuy.com blocks automated checks) and Best Buy store pages for Memphis, checked 26 August 2026
- Goodwill Industries of Greater Memphis, Donation FAQs and Sustainability pages, checked 26 August 2026
- ER2, Omega Electronics Recycling, Waste Solutions, ReWorx, STS Electronic Recycling and TeleTraders websites, checked 26 August 2026
