San Antonio residents can recycle electronics free at the city's permanent Household Hazardous Waste drop-off center at 7030 Culebra Road, Tuesday to Friday 8 am to 5 pm and Saturday mornings, and at the monthly first-Saturday HHW event at the Bitters center on Wurzbach Parkway. You need a recent CPS Energy bill showing the environmental fee plus photo ID. The four Bulky Waste Collection Centers do not take electronics, a distinction that catches people out. Best Buy and Staples take small items free, Great Northwest Recycling pays scrap value for computer boards and towers but refuses monitors, and Texas law makes manufacturers fund free take-back for computers and TVs. Every address, hour and rule below was checked against the source on 25 August 2026.
The city's free drop-off: HHW center, 7030 Culebra Road
Solid Waste Management runs one permanent Household Hazardous Waste site and it accepts e-waste alongside chemicals.
| Detail | |
|---|
| Address | 7030 Culebra Road, San Antonio, TX 78238 |
| Hours | Tuesday to Friday 8 am to 5 pm; Saturday 8 am to 12 pm; closed on city holidays |
| Who | Residential customers only; bring a recent CPS Energy bill showing payment of the environmental fee and a photo ID |
| Limits | HHW materials limited to 220 lb per visit; paint and liquids limited to five 5-gallon or twenty-five 1-gallon cans |
Accepted materials on the city's list: e-waste, batteries, printer cartridges, fluorescent fixtures and ballasts, auto fluids, oil filters, cooking oil, paint, pesticides, pool chemicals, household cleaners and solvents. Not accepted: ammunition, fireworks, medicine, commercial or medical waste, and ordinary trash. Keep items boxed in the trunk or truck bed; a technician unloads them.
Monthly HHW drop-off events at Bitters
On the first Saturday of each month (some months the first Friday and the following Saturday) the city runs an HHW event, 8 am to 12 pm, at the Bitters Bulky Waste Collection Center, 1800 Wurzbach Parkway, 78216. The next listed date on the city site is Saturday 5 September 2026. Same rules as the permanent site: CPS bill, photo ID, residential only.
Bulky Waste Collection Centers do not take electronics
San Antonio's four bulky centers (Bitters at 1800 Wurzbach Parkway, Frio City Road at 1531 Frio City Road, Culebra at 7030 Culebra Road, and Rigsby at 2755 Rigsby Road; Tuesday to Friday 8 am to 5 pm, Saturday 8 am to 12 pm) accept furniture, mattresses, large appliances, water heaters and AC units, carpet and up to six tires. Their accepted list does not include TVs, computers or other electronics, and hazardous material is on the refused list. The Culebra address is shared with the HHW center, so at Culebra you are in the right place; at the other three, electronics are turned away.
Retail drop-off in San Antonio: Best Buy, Staples, Home Depot
| Store | Takes | Cost | Limits |
|---|
| Best Buy | Flat-panel TVs and monitors up to 50 inches, laptops, desktops, phones, cables, hard drives, battery backups, stick and robot vacuums, fans, space heaters | Most items free; Best Buy says "some items may incur a recycling fee" and lists TV and monitor terms by state | Best Buy's page currently states both "up to ten items per household per day" and "limit three items per household per day" in different sections. Residents only, no business equipment, no recalled products |
| Staples | Computers, laptops, tablets, phones, hard drives, routers and modems, small servers, shredders, gaming consoles, cables, ink and toner | Free | No TVs on the accepted list |
| Home Depot and Lowe's | Rechargeable batteries and power-tool packs through Call2Recycle bins | Free | Not a drop-off for computers or TVs |
Local recyclers: who pays, who charges, who is business-only
| Recycler | Address | Hours | Notes |
|---|
| Great Northwest Recycling | 7386 Grissom Road, San Antonio, (210) 523-8155 | Monday to Friday 8 am to 5 pm; first and last Saturday of the month 8 am to 12 pm | A scrap yard that pays for computer towers, motherboards and circuit boards, CPUs, laptops, hard drives, cell phones, power supplies, digital cameras and lithium laptop batteries. Does not accept monitors, NiCd or alkaline batteries |
| STS Electronic Recycling | 1777 NE Loop 410, Suite 600, San Antonio, (210) 841-5704 | Business hours | R2 certified ITAD for businesses, military and healthcare; free pickup across Bexar County; not a household walk-in service |
| Advanced Technology Recycling (ATR) | Business Park, San Antonio | | R2v3 certified; its website states it is not currently accepting materials from residential customers |
Older directories still list AGC Electronic Recycling and Corona Visions in San Antonio; AGC's domain now shows a hosting placeholder and neither could be verified, so they are not recommended here.
What Texas law says
Texas puts the recycling duty on manufacturers. House Bill 2714 (2007) created the Texas Recycles Computers Program under 30 TAC 328.137: any brand selling computer equipment in Texas must offer consumers a free and convenient recycling route, and must be on the TCEQ manufacturer list before its products can be sold here. The Texas Recycles TVs Program (30 TAC Chapter 328, Subchapter J) does the same for televisions, with take-back based on market share. Dell, HP, Apple, Samsung and LG devices can be mailed back or dropped at a partner site at the manufacturer's expense; TexasRecyclesComputers.org and TexasRecyclesTVs.org carry the brand-by-brand instructions. TCEQ does not run collection sites, and Texas has no point-of-sale fee or statewide landfill ban for household electronics. San Antonio's own rule is that HHW, including e-waste, must never go in any curbside cart.
TVs in San Antonio
- Any TV: the Culebra Road HHW center or the monthly Bitters event, free with your CPS bill, within the 220 lb limit (a large CRT can weigh 60 to 100 lb, so one or two per visit).
- Flat-screen up to 50 inches: Best Buy, fee may apply.
- Brand take-back: use the manufacturer's Texas Recycles TVs program for a free mail-back or partner drop-off.
- Working TV: sell or donate it first.
Before you drop off a computer or phone
Sign out of Apple, Google, Microsoft and Samsung accounts, back up what you need, then factory reset. On an older spinning hard drive, overwrite it with a wipe tool or pull the drive and keep it. The city HHW center makes no promise about data; Great Northwest buys drives as scrap, so wipe or remove them first. 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, and even a dead tower has scrap value at Great Northwest. Check this month's buyback prices in the Trade-In Price Index or run your model through the Device Value Checker before recycling. Broken devices can be priced with the Scrap Value Calculator.
Nearby cities
Sources
- City of San Antonio Solid Waste Management, Household Hazardous Waste page (sa.gov/Directory/Departments/SWMD/HHW), guidelines, accepted and unaccepted materials, permanent drop-off address and hours, monthly event details, checked 25 August 2026
- City of San Antonio Solid Waste Management, Bulky Waste Collection Centers page (sa.gov/Directory/Departments/SWMD/Brush-Bulky/Bulky-Drop-Off), locations, hours, accepted and unaccepted lists, checked 25 August 2026
- Great Northwest Recycling, Electronics recycling and home pages (gnwrecycling.com), accepted and refused items, hours, checked 25 August 2026
- STS Electronic Recycling, San Antonio page (stselectronicrecyclinginc.com/san-antonio), checked 25 August 2026
- Advanced Technology Recycling (atrecycle.com), residential policy statement, checked 25 August 2026
- Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Electronics Recycling Programs, Texas Recycles Computers guidance (HB 2714, 30 TAC 328.137) and Texas Recycles TVs Program (30 TAC 328 Subchapter J), checked 25 August 2026
- Best Buy, Electronics and Appliances Recycling program page, checked 25 August 2026
- Staples, Recycling Services in-store accepted items list, checked 25 August 2026
- Bing Places listings for San Antonio recycling centers, checked 25 August 2026
