Starting Monday December 17, the NewsHour began broadcasting in HDTV-- high-definition television. While this gives viewers a bigger and better picture, it provides an array of challenges for our newsroom. To better explain what you're seeing and why, NewsHour staff answered your questions.
There are a variety of options for old TV sets, computers and other equipment, but they are hard to track down. For instance, there is a service local to me (Washington, DC area) which is staffed by the blind and which removes valuable and dangerous components and recycles the rest. They support their operation by selling the valuables but they won't take certain equipment. I know vaguely of other services that refurbish cast off, more recent equipment and make it available to the needy. Many of these services charge a fee to discard old equipment and are therefore much less popular. Most of the people in my community unfortunately simply put it in the landfill.