For DeKalb residents, doing away with large appliances is more difficult than with ordinary garbage.

Waste Management, DeKalb’s garbage-hauling contractors, will not remove items like refrigerators, water heaters, washers, dryers, or other household appliances on their routine garbage pickups. Residents must call to have these items picked up.

None of these “white goods” can be buried in the state of Illinois per Environmental Protection Agency regulations instated in the 1970s, according to a source at the DeKalb landfill. This eliminates taking the items to the dump, but there are alternatives for disposal.

Waste Management will pick up appliances from residents who call the hauling site. A fee of $30 is charged per appliance, which is put toward the fees the site incurs when sending the items to be recycled.

Another option residents have is to bring the items to B & O Used Auto Parts or DeKalb Iron & Metal Company (Dimco).

“We take everything but freon-bearing appliances,” said Dimco Vice-President Mark Hein. Freon-bearing appliances like air conditioners must be drained by a professional, and certified as such before they can be left with Dimco.

“Heating and air conditioning companies usually have the equipment to do that,” Hein said.

Dimco also does not take microwave ovens, because the door glass usually contains lead. For items like televisions, computer tubes, keyboards and printers, there is a charge of 50 cents per pound.

B & O Used Auto Parts will accept almost anything made of metal and does not charge for drop-offs.