Microwaves are no radioactive although they use microwaves as a form of energy to heat the food.
There's no radiation though in your food that you heat or cook in the microwave.
Microwaves are different from radio waves and X-rays. X-rays are ionizing radiation, which means they can alter atoms and molecules and damage cells.
Ionizing radiation is harmful to your body. But the non-ionizing radiation used by microwaves isn't harmful.
Microwaves last between 5 to 10 years before they quit working.
The more you use the microwave the faster it will wear out and stop working.
Most often thew new keypads buttons go bad before the actual microwave quits but from my experience I sometimes get 5 to 10 years out of a microwave before it quits.
Repairing a microwave can be worth it depending on the cost of the microwave and the needed repair.
If it's a cheap repair on an expensive microwave then it can be worth it.
However if it's a cheap countertop microwave that is $50.00 or less then it's usually not worth it to repair it and certainly not worth it to pay someone to repair it.
Most microwaves are not worth repairing especially if they are a cheaper countertop microwave.
An above stove or above range microwave that is more expensive may be worth repairing if it's a cheap repair but even then sometimes it's not worth repairing those microwaves.
If it's a cheap countertop microwave such as those $50.00 or less then they are not worth repairing as the cost to repair may be worth more or at least half as much as the new microwave would cost.
If it's no longer working properly then it's best to scrap the microwave or set it out by the curb for someone to pick up for scrap.
You scrap an old microwave.
You also need to remove the magnetron from the microwave before the scrap yard will buy it with a load of tin.
Selling one scrap microwave won't be worth it unless you mix the old scrap microwave in with other scrap metal and tin.
However once you have a ton which is 2000 lbs then you can get $200.00 or more depending on the price of the scrap tin.
There's some copper and transformer in the microwave as well and they are easy to remove.
To dispose of an old microwave you can scrap it out by taking it apart and then selling the copper, transformer etc out of it.
Then you can scrap the rest of the microwave as tin.
However you would need a lot of tin to make it worth the trip to the scrap yard.
But if you just want to dispose of it the scrap yard will likely take it as is for scrap even for nothing.
Or you could sit the old microwave out at curbside for scrap metal people to pick up.
In some locations people go around looking for scrap metal and will pick up the scrap metal you put out including the microwave.
You can do the same with other appliances.
For me I have a spot to put stuff like that and I also pick up some scrap when I see it and add to my pile.
Then when the price is high enough like now and I have enough scrap metal I take the load of scrap metal into the scrap yard to sell.
A local recycling center around you may also take it as well but if you have a scrap yard and are close by you can drop it off there as well.