Nextdoor Users Debate Whether Old Printer Qualifies As "E-Waste" Ahead Of Saturday Event

WAUKESHA — The city's electronic waste disposal event, scheduled for Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon in the public works lot off Sentry Drive, has been open for registration for 11 days. In that time it has drawn no visible controversy from the city itself, and 143 comments on Nextdoor concerning whether an inkjet printer with a jammed paper tray legally constitutes "waste" or merely "a printer that is currently broken."

The thread, titled "E-WASTE SAT - what actually counts??" and posted by a user identified only as Fox River Estates resident "KarenT_Waukesha68," has run to four pages since Sunday. It began with a photo of a Hewlett-Packard inkjet printer, model unspecified, captioned "does this count or do they only want computers." By Tuesday afternoon it had expanded to include a broken Samsung tablet, two sets of computer speakers, a Commodore 64 dated by its owner to 1994, and what one commenter described only as "the VCR situation."

The Commodore Question

The Commodore 64 post, from a user going by "Gregorian_Waukesha," drew 22 replies on its own, split roughly between commenters who considered a 32-year-old home computer an obvious inclusion and commenters who felt it belonged in what one reply called "a museum, or at minimum a garage sale, not a dumpster behind the DPW building." Gregorian clarified in a follow-up comment that the unit "still powers on" but that he had not "had a reason to turn it on since the Clinton administration," a detail that did not resolve the debate so much as extend it by six additional replies.

Ned England, the Backslide Way resident and proprietor of the "Nedventuresout" YouTube channel (420 subscribers), posted Monday that he intends to bring a box of equipment that has been "taking up half the garage" for what he estimated at "going on four years." England did not specify contents in his post, writing only that some of it "still has cords" and that he would "let the DPW guys sort it out." He added that he plans to film the drop-off for the channel, "assuming they'll let me park the truck close enough to get good light."

"I don't make the rules. I just want to know if I have to take the toner cartridge out first."

— Comment from Nextdoor user "PrintMeMaybe," posted Sunday at 11:47 p.m.

What The City Actually Says

According to the flyer posted to the city's website, and reposted in the Nextdoor thread itself by at least six separate users as though for the first time, the event accepts "computers, monitors, printers, televisions, and small household electronics," with a stated exception for large appliances and anything containing Freon. The flyer does not mention the Commodore 64 by name, a silence several thread participants interpreted as either permissive or, per one reply, "deeply suspicious."

Public works coordinator Ellen Marchetti, reached by phone Monday, confirmed that the printer, the Commodore 64, the Samsung tablet, and "in all likelihood the VCR" would be accepted. "If it plugs in and it's not currently plugging in something that's still alive, we probably want it," Marchetti said. Asked whether she had seen the Nextdoor thread, Marchetti said she had been sent screenshots of it by three different neighbors and that she found the tone "more forensic than I expected for a Tuesday."

Councilman Gary Puchalski, whose district includes the Fox River Estates neighborhood, said he had also seen portions of the thread and declined to weigh in on the Commodore 64 specifically, calling it "above my pay grade and also not really my area." He said he supported the event generally and hoped for "a strong turnout, however people arrive at that."

A Bigger Crowd Than Usual

City estimates suggest between 200 and 250 residents will attend Saturday's event, roughly double a typical year's turnout, a figure several Nextdoor commenters attributed directly to the thread's visibility. One user, "SueAnninWaukesha," wrote that she had not planned to attend before reading the debate but now intended to bring "basically everything in the basement, just to see what they say."

A separate sub-thread, running 19 comments deep by Tuesday evening, concerned whether five-year-old smartphones should be brought Saturday or held for a future event under the theory that the phones "still have some life in them." No consensus was reached, though one commenter noted that the phones in question were "definitely not getting faster by waiting."

As of Tuesday evening, the original printer had not been resolved to the thread's satisfaction. Its owner, KarenT_Waukesha68, posted an update stating she had decided to bring it regardless of the ruling, "because at this point I just want it out of the hallway."