I have a dead television set. And that’s the sort of thing that sits and rots in basements because you can’t just throw it out, because it’s bad for the environment. There’s only one problem with that plan: I don’t have a basement. I have about six hundred square feet, and there’s no room in it for rotting, dusty dead televisions, even ones which let me pile up laundry baskets very nicely on them.

Which is why it’s convenient that next Saturday, the 16th of April, the City of Chicago is celebrating Earth Week with a Household Hazardous Waste/Electronics Recycling day, at 1150 N. North Branch Street. Bring them your monitors, your batteries, your ooky old drain cleaner bottles that have been under the sink for five years. Plus, show up early enough and they’ll even give you a super swanky free gift of a year’s supply of blue bags. Clean the house, get freebies, and earn piles of good environmental karma — can’t beat that with a stick!