The free DVD player that my friend Scott gave me a few months back is broken already. This is after I went through a month of trying to contact COBY, the manufacturer, to send me a remote control for the damn thing, which Scott had lost.

Now I have the remote, but the DVD player just makes weird, clucking noises when I put a DVD in. Scott’s sister had won the cheap thing in some drawing. Free electronics are not to be trusted.

Today, trying to get rid of it, I had to do some serious research — I didn’t want to just dump it in the trash, but “recycle dvd player” in google only brought up recycling companies competing for business wastes. Finally, I found the Department of Public Works Bureau of Sanitation (Update: I don’t know why the info moved to a different site) website for LA County, which has a Hazardous Waste (E-waste) page for residents.

The easiest thing to do, if you live in LA, is to drop of your “e-waste” — unwanted electronic equipment — at U.C.L.A. S.A.F.E. Collection Center (PDF) on any Saturday between 8:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. Don’t go on any other day — they only take e-waste on Saturdays. They also don’t take computer software or business waste.

So I’ll be there this Saturday — incidentally the only day I have off from work these days — with other green-mindeds in LA, sharing electronic woes.

I need a DVD player, by the way.

U.C.L.A. S.A.F.E. CENTER, 550 Charles E. Young Dr. West Los Angeles, CA 90095, 1-800-98-TOXIC (1-800-988-6942)

Update, 8/31/05: This SAFE center is more than a little difficult to find. I recommend going N on Gayley until you hit Strathmore. Make a right on to Strathmore, then a right on to Charles E. Young Dr. If the road looks like an alley, you’re on the right track. — To your left, you’ll see what looks like an open garage with lots of junk. That’s the place, but you’ll need to go past that to the intersection where you can make a Uie, come back to the garage-like place, put your car in park and hand over what you’ve got to the college-age, rather disgruntled recycling center workers –

Update, 2/5/06: It’s now illegal to throw batteries in the trash. Recycling greenly isn’t any easier, however.

Update, 10/10/06: Here’s a list of all the hazardous waste drop offs in the city of LA –

Update, 1/10/07: The e-waste recycling options haven’t exactly gotten better, but here’s something listing where you CAN go recycle, as well as a brief look at a company trying to make e-recycling easier.