I have an old (non-working) microwave oven I want to get rid of. Is it safe to just throw it away in the dumpster? I thought I read once that there’s a plate inside that has to be disposed of a certain way - as with car batteries. One of my co-workers suggested that cutting the plug would be sufficient.
I’d call City Hall, but I’m sure I’d get some clerk with no clue what I was talking about.
Microwave ovens are safe to throw in regular trash. The active part is a vacuum tube. You can cut the plug if it makes you feel better, but anyone halfway detirmined can fix the cord. -Toying with microwave oven innards is a Dumb Thing, normally minimized by Darwin’s theory of evolution.
What the person might have been thinking of instead was smoke detectors, most of which use a tiny bit of mildly radioactive material that technically isn’t supposed to end up in the regular landfill. - MC
This is true – smoke detectors can be legally landfilled, along with pretty much everything else that comes from a household. That doesn’t necessarily mean that’s the best place for it. Smoke detectors should be sent (by surface shipping, not air) back to the manufacturer for disposal. You should be able to find the manufacturer’s information on the back cover.
Yes, in case you were wondering, household hazardous waste IS my life.