Televisions are one of the most refused donations in America, and the rules are all about age and type. A working flat screen a few years old is easy to place. A TV more than about five years old, a console set, or anything broken gets turned away by most thrift stores. Meanwhile, old CRT tube sets have one surprising audience that actually wants them. Here is the decision tree.
Goodwill and the Salvation Army accept working flat-screen TVs at many locations, but the cutoffs are strict: the Salvation Army generally refuses sets more than about five years old and all large console TVs, and some Goodwill regions have stopped accepting TVs entirely. Call your specific store before hauling a set over. Bring the remote and power cord; a TV without them often gets refused. See what the Salvation Army accepts.
Homeless shelters, transitional-housing programs, community centers, libraries, and school AV departments sometimes want a working flat screen for common rooms and classrooms. A direct call beats a drop-off here, since needs are occasional. This route is best for mid-size sets in good working order.
The one audience that actively hunts old tube TVs: retro video game players. Many classic consoles, especially light-gun games, only play correctly on a CRT, and working tube sets in good condition are traded and sought after. Before recycling a CRT, list it free on a marketplace or ask a local video game store; a set that no charity will touch can find an enthusiastic home the same week.
For TVs no one will take, Best Buy accepts CRTs under 32 inches and flat screens under 50 inches for recycling for a fee of about $30 per set, and offers haul-away when delivering a new TV. Some other retailers run similar programs. This is the simplest paid route for a dead television.
Your city or county likely runs an electronics recycling center or periodic collection events that accept TVs, including CRTs, often free for residents. CRTs contain leaded glass and should never go in the trash; many states ban televisions from landfills outright. Check your local solid-waste authority for drop-off days.
Last updated June 2026. Errors: [email protected]
A donated TV must sell within days, and buyers in a thrift store want what they would buy new: a reasonably recent flat screen. Old sets take floor space, consoles weigh a hundred pounds and never sell, and any TV that arrives broken costs the store a recycling fee. That is why the five-year rule of thumb exists, and why calling ahead saves you loading a 60-pound set twice. The refusal is economics, not ingratitude.
Here is the twist most donation guides miss: while charities refuse tube TVs, the retro gaming community pays real money for good ones. Duck Hunt and other light-gun games physically cannot work on modern LCDs because of display lag, and speedrunners of classic consoles prefer CRT response times. Trinitron and other flat-tube models are especially wanted. A free listing with the model number attracts collectors fast, which beats paying to recycle a working set.
A TV donation succeeds or fails on accessories. Include the remote, the power cord, and the feet or wall-mount hardware if you removed them. Wipe the set down and, if it is a smart TV, factory reset it to sign out of your streaming accounts, the same data hygiene you would apply when you donate a computer. A complete, clean, working set is accepted almost everywhere that takes TVs at all.
Recycled flat screens are broken down for circuit boards, aluminum, and plastics. CRTs are the hard case: each tube holds several pounds of lead inside the glass, which is why they are banned from landfills in many states and why recyclers sometimes charge for them. Using a certified e-waste recycler, look for R2 or e-Stewards certification, keeps that lead managed instead of buried.