Staples First Major Retailer to Accept E-waste
FRAMINGHAM, Mass.
Staples, Inc., the world’s largest office products company, today announced that it now makes it easy to recycle used computers and other office technology at any Staples store nationwide, becoming the first national retailer to offer computer recycling in stores every day.
Staples makes it easy for customers to recycle e-waste by simply bringing their used computers, monitors, laptops, printers, faxes and all-in-ones to any U.S. Staples store, where the equipment will be recycled in accordance with environmental laws. All brands will be accepted, regardless of whether or not the equipment was purchased at Staples, for a fee of $10 per large item. Staples is working with Amandi Services, one of the country’s most experienced and innovative electronics recyclers, to handle recycling of the equipment, following standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
“It’s not always easy being green. However, through the leadership of Staples, Americans will see that preventing pollution by recycling unwanted electronics is as easy as it gets,” said Stephen L. Johnson, Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “EPA and our Plug-In To eCycling partners are helping make sure yesterday’s high-tech gadgets do not go to waste.”
“An estimated 133,000 computers are discarded every day in the U.S.,” said Mark Buckley, vice president of environmental affairs at Staples, Inc. “We know that small businesses and consumers want to recycle their used office technology but are often frustrated by the lack of convenient options available. By making it easy to recycle, Staples helps customers take action in handling e-waste in an environmentally responsible way.”
How the Recycling Program Works
- Customers drop off their old equipment at the customer service desk at any Staples store, 7 days a week during regular store hours; (TV’s and large, floor-model copiers are not accepted).
- Staples will recycle any manufacturers’ products, regardless of whether or not it was purchased from Staples, and there’s no limit on the quantity of equipment that can be recycled.
- A recycling fee of $10 per piece of large equipment is charged to cover handling, transport, product disassembly and recycling. Smaller computer peripherals, such as keyboards and mice, will be recycled for free.
- Staples Easy Techsm service is on site in all stores to transfer data from an old computer to a new one for a fee.
- Equipment is bagged and sealed when customers drop them off at the Staples customer service desk. The equipment is then picked up and delivered to Amandi Services, who disassembles the equipment into its component parts and uses industry-leading standards for data destruction. Amandi then recycles the raw materials, such as the plastics, metals, printed circuit boards and Cathode Ray Tubes (CRT). The CRTs, which are the most hazardous part of electronics waste, are recycled utilizing Amandi’s proprietary technology into a raw material that is used to manufacture new televisions.
Staples is a U.S. EPA Plug-In to eCycling partner and has offered computer recycling in its Seattle area stores for the past two years. In addition to computer and office technology recycling, Staples provides customers with easy, everyday, in-store recycling for ink and toner cartridges, cell phones, PDAs and rechargeable batteries. In 2006, the company recycled more than 17 million ink and toner cartridges and 3,500 tons of electronic waste.
Staples Commitment to the Environment
In addition to recycling of technology items, Staples’ initiatives to help protect and sustain the earth take many forms, such as offering a wide assortment of eco-friendly products, investing in energy efficiency and renewable energy and educating customers and associates about how they can make a difference. The company offers over 2,900 products made with recycled materials and is one of the largest retail and Fortune 500 purchasers of green power in the country. Learn more about Staples environmental initiatives.
About Staples
Staples, Inc. invented the office superstore concept in 1986 and today is the world’s largest office products company. With 74,000 talented associates, the company is committed to making it easy to buy a wide range of office products, including supplies, technology, furniture, and business services. With 2006 sales of $18.2 billion, Staples serves consumers and businesses ranging from home-based businesses to Fortune 500 companies in 22 countries throughout North and South America, Europe and Asia. Headquartered outside of Boston, Staples operates approximately 1,900 office superstores and also serves its customers through mail order catalog, e-commerce and contract businesses. More information is available at www.staples.com.
Find the nearest Staples store in the Earth 911 recycling locator at the top of the page by typing “electronics” on the left and your zip code on the right.
angreen
posted on June 24th, 2007 at 8:40 pm
Can someone tell me why it costs the consumer money to recycle this garbage? Does anyone think that the average
American, who doesn’t really give a rat’s behind about the environment, is going to pay one penny to recycle something? If “green” organizations want to protect the environment then they should start recycling for free…until then, don’t give me this garbage about being “green.”
0be1
posted on June 27th, 2007 at 9:50 am
The govenerment and many others are trying their best to satisfy EVERYONE who has to do with ewaste. Just like when you buy new tires most places charge a fee to properly dispose of your old ones, same with car batteries, and other hazardous chemicals and equipment.
I actually have started a non-profit organization locally and we take most everything free of charge. We do charge for monitors and tv’s a small fee, however that not only helps cover the properly disposal fee, but helps pay for our overhead as well. We also bring free computer training and other events to our community. So it is not like people are getting rich off this or anything.
I hate to sound rude to your reply, but if you don’t like it, why don’t you go back to paper and pen or a typewriter. We all have to pay to play, and business’ cannot afford to keep the doors open for free.
jimbo
posted on June 27th, 2007 at 11:10 am
OK, I will.
Because industry is actually *subsidized* by your and my tax dollars, to say nothing of our collective ownership of natural resources, when they grind trees, dump acids to create clean, white paper.
It’s a giant, lowest-cost process, this massive logging and milling. Now with recycling, not so simple. Somebody’s gotta collect, sort, then reprocess all the paper waste from all sorts of small raw material locations (your recycling bins, dumpsters, whatever.)
Why would we want to pay more for recycled? Frankly, it’s recognizing the reality that if you don’t support recycling, you’re saving pennies for your personal pocket at the cost of filling up dumps and scalping the forests. In a better reallocation of costs, sure, major industry would pay for the back end effects of producing their products, but that’s what they hire lobbysts to avoid.
Green Dog Pet Supply » Did You Know You Can Bring Your E-waste to Staples?
posted on July 1st, 2007 at 8:42 am
[...] I just read something interesting today about the Staples company – they accept all sorts of e-waste at their store whether you bought it there or not. I’ll be posting something about e-waste (discarded electrical equipment like computers and printers) soon, so it’s on my mind, but I thought I’d share this article with you as I think it’s great and should make it even easier to be able to dispose of that toxic e-waste properly. Check out this link [...]
ucsd93
posted on July 9th, 2007 at 11:42 pm
Paying to recycle items with obvious residual value is very disturbing. Don’t think for a second that the gesture by Staples doesn’t pencil out for their bottom line. They’re not a philanthropic organization nor idealists. California now charges an $8 recycling fee when buying any electronic device. It’s not clear where this goes because I’m still required to pay to recycle any items. I hope this improves soon.
mesker21
posted on July 24th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
Not sure about other cities, but here in Phoenix, AZ the city has a hazardous household waste collection days. It used to be called BOPA–batteries, oil, paint, and antifreeze; but has changed to collect appliances. Maybe so they don’t get dumped in the desert.
scificomputers
posted on July 25th, 2007 at 9:01 am
I’m live north of Birmingham AL, I have a small computer store and get in a good bit of broken monitors and old computers. I dissasemble the computers, recycle the metal at the local recyclers and get a little money off of it. However, they don’t take monitors but staples does, but I am not paying 10 dollars to recycle a monitor when i can barely afford rent. Plus the closest STAPLES is a 45 min drive. I will be glad to collect monitors from customers if there was an easy way to dispose of these for free or even to make a little, but would gladly do it for free. Any locations or avenues for me to follow would be of great help.
grenat21
posted on July 25th, 2007 at 6:09 pm
For people like “angreen,”
Why should it be free to recycle? It’s costing the recyclers money to recycle these products. We are all in on this together, as a memeber of this planet you should care enough to pay the minute fee that staples is charging. Maybe next time you decide to waste your money on something that you won’t care less about next week you can save that money and put it towards something that will impact yours and all of ours lives. I bet you’ll feel great afterwards.
scificomputers
posted on August 20th, 2007 at 10:30 am
i know this is hard for some greeners to understand, but money toward garbage is no incentive for anyone. only way to get people to recycle is a. pay them, b. make it free and easy. people are not going to pay to recycle anything on a level that would be worth anything. i don’t care how “good” you feel for doing it, but the majority of people do not have the money to spend on garbage. take my city for instance, there is no recycling place for anything here. maybe aluminum cans, but that is it, we are sending everything except those and scrap iron to the dump. the closest scrap recycling is not too far away so people are making money doing that, but paper and every other household waste goes straight to the dump because we have garbage disposal. you want to make a difference. get recycling centers in all the big cities.
hiddencomplexity
posted on September 6th, 2007 at 7:07 pm
considering that i dumpster dive at serveral staples’ dumpsters and actually recycle the hundreds of printer cartridges they throw out weekly (for my own financial/eco-consciousness benefit of course) as part of their “new green recycling campaign”, i can only view this as an advanced form of greenwashing, especially the fact that they are charing $10 for a monitor!!!!!
the price is absurd….they are profiting in some way from the e-waste, or i doubt they would undertake such an task. Een if they’re recycling some of the components they overcharge the public for, they will most likely throw the majority away.
seaotter
posted on October 6th, 2007 at 3:58 am
“The fee, ranging from $6 to $10 depending on screen size, will be collected at the time of retail sale…
Collected fees will be deposited in an Electronic Waste Recovery and Recycling Account managed by the State of California and will be used to provide payments to authorized collectors and recyclers, fostering the development of recycling opportunities and offsetting the cost of properly managing these types of products at the end of their useful lives.
It is important to note that the Electronic Waste Recycling Fee is not a deposit, and that the covered products do not contain “redemption value”, as do many beverage containers in California. Consumers are not entitled to reimbursement of the fee when covered products are recycled. Rather, the intent of the fee is to reduce, or eliminate, the costs associated with properly recycling this material when it becomes waste.”"
source: http://www.erecycle.org
Hopefully Amandi,, the chosen company, is using this money to do all the recycling safely and IN THE US! Currently 80% of electronic waste is shipped overseas to be recycled, while these companies pocket the money.
neuromajor
posted on November 6th, 2007 at 3:01 am
Interesting discussion. In general, I hope more debate about this ewaste happens so that things get done on a national level to make it free and easy to recycle. I think California has the right idea–pay up front for something that will be a burden later on. It’s stupid to pay to recycle. I looked at an office depot ewaste program to recycle a monitor and found it would cost $15 to get rid of it. Dude, $15 is alot. So I wrapped it up and tossed it in someone else’s garbage bin. Yeah its illegal in my city, but I saved 15 bucks and oodles of time. Guess how many of me are out there… the majority.
bkslounge
posted on January 2nd, 2008 at 1:01 pm
First of all, everyone needs to calm down about paying some green to go green. This is America baby and nothing is for free. If you want it done right!! If the “Dude” who dumped his equipment feels good about what he has done, then so be it. But know this, someone, somewhere eventually will be drinking from the toxic water source that his machine was dumped into. (cadmium, copper and 7lbs of lead to name a few) Mighty fine beverage if you ask me!! Then we can all ask him, would he have done the same thing, if someone he knew or maybe a family member grew 8 legs as a result of his lack of knowledge?
The bottom line, we all need to do our part. I work in the industry and from a corporate perspective, companies are spending millions to secure the data properly and dispose of their obselete IT equipment with a possibility to break even if not make a profit from the residual values that some machines offer. (at the moment any machines PIII ,laptop or desktop can get remarketed for $$ whole or torn down that are about 3-4 years in age) Anthing later is considered scrap and should be properly recycled with a company like ours that guarantees-Zero Landfill, Zero Incineration and Zero E-waste export) Not a bad buiness to be in if the volumes are there right? I know money is tight for you people, but if your behavior stays the same then the future generations have no chance, all because of a few million people do not want to shell out 10-15$. Get a grip and make a difference now! Its not too late.
Laura Dicus
posted on November 2nd, 2008 at 1:06 am
How about we also start thinking about the built in obscelecense factor when deciding to upgrade. We have 3 monitors in te basement and not one thing is wrong with them. The new computers just happened to come with monitors. So how about donating these to libraries or places like Goodwill or St Vincent de Paul? Check out the options before deciding something that is in usable condition is actually garbage! I think we all need to start really thinking rather than just following along in the same old dangerous path.
One thing that really gets my goat is the green movement proponants who really aren’t offering green options as may be the case with Staples. MoveOn.org’s phone service deal. Credo creates all this hype about how much they contribute to being green yet they are just a front for Sprint, who require you to get a new phone even if you already have a new phone that is in perfectly good condition. Credo even sends out emails telling you if you have service through Verizon you are a horrible person. It’s up to us to do the research and act as responsible consumers.
So the decision to pay for recycling materials is up to the individual as all of our consumerism really is. What about those who can’t afford to make those decisions? Say they don’t expect their computer to break and they’ve already spent all their “extra” cash buying up carbon offsets? What are they supposed to do with their toxic trash? As a society of individuals we need to progress to the point where we have non-profit subsudized companies that will handle the disposal of every kind of waste. We pay to have our trash picked up at the curb. We pay for our recyling to be picked up at the curb. I’m looking forward to the day that all of us disgruntled recylers have passed the legislation to require the repair, reuse, recycling and responsible disposal of all of our consumer goods in every community… and that the guy who tosses his toxic trash into someone else’s dumpster will be looking at an environmental littering fine equal to or more than the fine for tossing a lit cigarette on the ground here in WA state: $125 bucks baby.
Ed
posted on January 16th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
Recycling just one ton of office paper saves 17 trees, 4,100 gallons of water, 384 gallons of oil, and 3 cubic yards of landfill space.
If you consider that trees convert carbon monoxide which is poison to carbon di-oxide, which we breathe, and clean non poluted water, which is becoming more scarce, and oil that is used to produce plastics and transport materials is expensive, plus that we are dependent on foreign sources that can be cut off at any time, recycling makes economic sense now to keep prices down.
Yes, recycling cost money, but that is nominal when you look at what the cost is for producing products from new unrefined sources.
If everyone would recycle now, the cost would actually go down for products made from recycled materials due to the availability of lower cost in manufacturing.