VHS tapes: What to do with them?

I have a small mountain of them. Some are degraded to the point of being useless. So I set about to see how to dispose of them only to find out that they contain toxic elements and land fills won't accept them. Same with recycling firms. I can pay a company about a buck a tape plus shipping to get rid of them but that would run into hundreds of dollars.

Anyone have any creative ideas for using them? Or better still...a legal way to dispose of them?

Note: None of these are commercially produced tapes. Thrift shops will accept the professionally produced ones.

Build a house and use the tapes as bricks, bond it all together with mighty puddy and wealther proof it with flex seal.
🤷‍♂️

a reply to: diggindirt

If you pour enough gas and used motor oil on them they burn pretty good... 😜👍

Stuff them inside of a few tires in your front yard, pour gasoline all over them, then light them on fire. I’ve heard it’s completely legal.

Keep them as Retro collection.

There is a whole community online devoted to using VHS and cassette tapes for audio recording quality. It is fascinating how it works. Like I guess half a VHS is used for video half for audio but u can record using both bands for audio and it becomes higher quality than CD.. only one company on earth left who makes blank cassettes too and they are hot hot commodities now. Look at it...

Such a shame. VHS is a great analog format(obviously not as good as Betamax). If I recall the housing and spindles are a mix of ABS and polyethylene, and the reel is something like cellulose with a ferrous coating. The ABS should be able to be chipped and recast into 3D printing filament, but the reel is probably just garbage. That said, some entrepreneur should probably work out a way to do multitrack audio recording on the VHS spec. Could have a niche appeal.

a reply to: AlexandrosTheGreat

search.earth911.com...

go to the site above

type in vhs on the left side, and your zip code on the right.

it should give you a listing of disposal sites.

It may auto correct the term "vhs" to something else..so you can type in "magnetic media"

a reply to: diggindirt


Open a gift wrapping business that specialized in black ribbon.

Check first to see if you have any of value as some VHS can go for 100's
www.buzzfuse.net...

a reply to: Fisherr We have the disney 101 dalmations one in the case. We may have just given it to the granddaughter for her kid.

a reply to: Athetos

Funny you should say that. My daughter suggested that maybe we could build a chicken house out of them.

a reply to: spacedoubt

Found that one when Googling. No collection center within half a day's drive of me. I also found out that their information isn't up to date. The center nearest me has been closed for a year.

a reply to: diggindirt

Mountain of VHS Tapes? You mean miles and miles of free rope! Tie you plants, tie your neighbors, rappel down the Nigara falls. Swing from building to building like some... some sort of VHS-Man! Excelsior.

a reply to: diggindirt

Break them. Stomp on them. Put them in a garbage bag for weekly collection.
Problem solved!