This really bothers me and I would just like an honest opinion from anyone who wishes to express it.

The city where I live has a recycling facility where you can drop off paper, plastic and... electronics.

The electronics container is one of those large ones that you can walk into. Everyone can just come in and drop off their TV's, printers and of course computers.
I visit the facility once in a while when I have a large haul of recyclables that I want to dispose of. They pick up the electronics container about once every two weeks.

I called the village and asked about it but they said you can't remove anything from the container and take it home even though they don't own the actual container. (Some recycling company owns it and provides it for free and they haul it away for free) The area is monitored with cameras but I'm not sure if they actually check the footage.

The thing is... It really breaks my heart. Every time I go there I see a bunch of old 486 era computers along with pentiums 1/2/3. All intact, clean. Just old. I guess I'm wondering if anyone here lives in a similar city/village and knows if this is more of a guideline or if it's actually illegal. Of course I know that there's an issue with privacy (if owners didn't wipe their hd's before recycling) but all of us here know that that's not what we're about.

Any opinions?