How to Recycle Television Antennas

Television antennas in a wide variety of sizes and styles pick up broadcast signals. An antenna ages like any other piece hardware, and it can become obsolete. Also, your viewing choices -- for example, switching to cable service -- can render the old antenna unusable. Whatever your reason for getting rid of your antenna, recycling is the best method of disposal. Recycling methods include scrapping it with a metal recycler, reusing it in other ways or donating it for to someone who can reuse it.

Instructions

• 1

  Contact a metal recycler or waste management company and ask if television antennas are accepted. If so, ask whether you need to drop it off or place it with other recyclables for curbside pickup.

• 2

  Offer your antenna as a free item in newspaper classifieds or online through a free advertising or recycling site such as Craigslist.org or Freecycle.org. Include as many details as possible. For example, type of antenna, its age and its condition -- works, works poorly or doesn't work at all.

• 3

  Modify television antennas for use with ham radios. If you're dealing with a tower-style television antenna, reuse it as a high point to attach radio antennas; or disassemble a roof antenna and build a new radio antenna such as a 2-meter band antenna.

• 4

  Use the antenna, or parts from the antenna, in a form of artwork or decoration. For example, you might create a sculpture or decorate outdoors by burying the pole/mast of an analog rooftop antenna in the ground and hanging wind chimes, paper lanterns or other decorations from it.

• 5

  Check around your community at shelters, churches, nursing homes, thrift shops and other organizations, or with neighbors, to see if anyone would accept your antenna as a donation. Donate a working VHF "Rabbit Ears" or UHF "Bowtie" television antenna to someone who can't afford cable service to watch full-power basic network channels affected by the 2009 Digital TV Transition. Or donate a working television antenna to someone trying to pick up local low-power (LPTV) channels unaffected (as of June 2011) by the digital transition.