ORLANDO, Fla. – A recent study by Best Buy found most people don't recycle electronics for a number of reasons.
The study of more than 900 men and women between the ages of 18 and 65 found 61 percent don't recycle their electronics because they don't know where to take them, it's a hassle or it costs money.
Mieke Rich, an Orlando mother, agrees.
"I think people would recycle them if it was convenient and they knew where to take them. I don't think people know where to go," Rich said.
You can probably stop at almost any house on any street and find unused electronics. Local 6 randomly stopped at Lynn Taylor's house in Orlando and asked if he had unused electronics. He did.
"It's an effort to recycle," Taylor said.
In his garage, Taylor showed Local 6 a box television that he hasn't used in years, he said.
"Where you go to recycle is not widely known," Taylor said.
There are a number of places you can go to recycle, from nonprofit organizations to retail stores.
[WEB EXTRA: Info about recycling by county]
"We divert from the landfill about 1.9 million pounds or about 1,000 tons a year," Lee Ciccone told Local 6.
Ciccone is the donated goods manager at Goodwill Industries of Central Florida.
Goodwill's warehouse on South Orange Blossom Trail is filled with donated TVs, telephones and computers. The items are sorted, recycled and sometimes resold.
"We need this information to get out because people are holding on to stuff, then throwing it away. We don't want it in the landfill," Ciccone said.
Retailers and manufacturers recycle, too. Best Buy takes nearly all electronics and appliances at no charge, according to its website.
Staples could pay you. After inspecting your devices, you could get an e-card to be used toward in-store purchases, according to the company's website.
There are also websites that will buy your old goods.
There are other concerns that keep people from getting rid of old electronics, like all the personal information that can be stored on phones, tablets and computers.
"That was definitely a concern of ours, so my husband removed the hard drives and we have those in the house, so our personal information was not shared," Rich said.
Many places offer to erase your personal information at no charge.
As an extra precaution, you can also do it yourself first by removing any memory or SIM cards. Also do a factory reset of cellphones and tablets.