7 Things Sitting in South Carolina Garages That Should’ve Been Tossed Years Ago

Think that old red gas can in the corner of your garage is just taking up space?

It’s doing worse than that.

Gasoline goes stale in months, and a few other things in your garage surely slipped from being junk to being a problem.

These are the things sitting in South Carolina garages that you should have tossed years ago.

1. Old Televisions and Electronics

That boxy television in the back of your South Carolina garage hasn’t switched on in years.

But you can’t set it on the curb with your household trash.

South Carolina has kept televisions, computers, laptops, and printers out of its landfills since 2011 because the parts inside hold lead and mercury.

It’s the law.

So, garages become the holding pen, and a dead tube TV that weighs as much as a full cooler sits there for a decade while everyone pretends not to see it.

Your county recycling center or a state drop-off point will take the whole pile, and most charge you nothing for it.

2. Rusted Propane Tanks

A grill tank leaning in the corner of your garage looks harmless enough until you read the collar stamped into its handle.

Every 20-pound propane cylinder carries an expiration, good for 12 years from the date it was made.

After that, no exchange cage will swap it, and no refiller will touch it.

Then it’s scrap.

Like electronics, you can’t toss it in the trash or recycling bin.

A propane tank that reads empty still holds vapor, and that’s how garbage trucks catch fire.

Take it to a household hazardous waste collection, or bring it to a propane dealer who’ll retire it the right way.

3. Old Gasoline in a Can

Fuel goes bad faster than almost anything else stored in a garage.

Regular gasoline starts breaking down in a few months, and the ethanol blended in pulls water out of the humid Lowcountry air the whole time.

The clock’s already running.

Pour that varnish-thick leftover into your mower next spring, and you can gum up the carburetor for good.

Old gasoline is a fire risk sitting on a shelf, too.

Many South Carolina counties take it on hazardous waste days, or a repair shop may fold small amounts into its recycling drum.

4. Expired Car Seats

Old car seats have a way of disappearing behind the holiday bins in a garage and staying there for years.

Every car seat carries an expiration date printed on its base, and most expire six years to ten years after they’re made.

The brittle truth is heat.

A car seat that bakes through Carolina summers in a hot garage or a parked car develops hairline cracks in the plastic that nobody can see.

You can’t donate or resell an expired car seat.

So, cut the straps, mark the shell, and take the whole thing to a Target or Walmart car seat trade-in that recycles the old plastic.

5. Old Tires

One old tire in the corner can hold enough standing water to breed 10,000 mosquito larvae.

That’s where West Nile starts.

South Carolina bans tires from state landfills, so they pile up in garages and carports instead.

The state already recycles more than 4.6 million of them a year, according to the Post and Courier.

Any tire shop will take your old tires for the small state fee, the same one you paid when you bought them.

6. Dead Fire Extinguishers

Check the gauge on the fire extinguisher in your garage because the needle may already be in the red.

A disposable extinguisher has a service life of 12 years from its manufacture date. Then it slowly loses pressure.

It’s basically a paperweight at that point.

You can’t just throw away a fire extinguisher, since it’s a pressurized cylinder.

Squeeze the handle outdoors to bleed off the charge, let the gauge fall to zero, then take it to a hazardous waste center or ask your local fire department whether they’ll accept it.

7. Old Paint Cans

Those paint cans lined up on a South Carolina garage shelf almost never get used up.

How you throw them away depends on what’s inside.

Read the can first.

Latex and water-based paint are the easy case.

You can leave the lid off until it dries solid, or stir in cat litter to speed it up, and the hardened can goes out with the household trash.

Oil-based paint counts as household hazardous waste, and a landfill won’t take it.

Hold the oil-based cans for a county collection day, and let the latex harden on the shelf.

The Old Garage Fridge

An old refrigerator or chest freezer humming in a South Carolina garage is a common sight, right up until the day it stops running.

Then it just sits, since a broken fridge isn't a curbside pickup.

South Carolina keeps large appliances out of its landfills, and the refrigerant sealed inside is the reason.

A licensed technician has to pull the coolant before anyone can scrap the metal.

Freon isn't a garden-hose job.

Most county convenience centers and scrap-metal yards handle appliance drop-off, and many will recover the refrigerant for you.

That Corroded Car Battery

A spare car battery on a South Carolina garage floor is a slow-motion mess, leaking acid and giving off fumes.

South Carolina has shut lead-acid batteries out of its landfills for decades.

For good reason.

Here's the part that pays you back: