Throwing away furniture and appliances in Korea

D-2. Two days from now, we’re going to move into our new home. We feel quite sentimental since we’ve lived in our current apartment for eight years. I would certainly miss my son’s drawings on our wall. Anyway, I’ve been sorting our stuff and I’m finding things that I never knew we had. The other day, I saw my fake designer wallet that I bought in New York City’s Chinatown five years ago and I found 50,000 won inside. LOLz!
We have a few pieces to throw away. We sort our recyclables like PET bottles, HDPE, steel, glasses, styrofoams, vinyl and the likes. The food waste are also thrown separately from other wastes. Anything else is thrown in plastic vinyl bags that we buy from the stores. A 10-liter bag is 400 won (or 38 cents). These vinyl bags are issued by the government and they are what we use to throw away ordinary garbage.
Throwing away furniture and appliances is a different matter. We can’t just leave them at the recycling area of our complex. Today, I had to go to the village office or “동 사무서” (dong samuso) and register the stuff that we’re going to throw away.
For an armchair, I had to pay 4,000 won (or about 3.80 USD). A small desk is 2,000 won or 1.90 USD. I was given the paper that I have to stick to the furniture I’m going to dispose of.

Last year, when we threw out my son’s electronic toy car we had to pay 3,000 won. When my husband took it to the disposal area, a man saw the car and asked if he could just take it. We agreed so we just took the paper back to the village office and got a refund.
Small appliances can be thrown away at the recycling area. This morning, I saw two laptops and a desktop. I wonder if they still work. I also threw out my six-year old convection oven that is still working. The “cleaning” ajumma asked if it’s still okay. I said yes and so she just took it.