You’re Missing Free Recycling

by 07/05/10 10 Comments

In 2007, approximately 414,000 tons of electronics were collected in the U.S. for recycling, preventing the release of greenhouse gases equivalent to the annual emissions of more than 178,000 cars. Photo: Flickr/Bert van Dijk

The formula seems right: free recycling + accessible bins = higher recycling rate. Well, it’s not always that easy.

While manufacturers and retailers are upping the number of free recycling programs for everything from old CRT televisions to chunky cell phones, studies show that consumers just aren’t getting on board.

Case in point: The U.S. EPA launched its Plug-In to eCycling campaign in 2003, encouraging major manufacturers to provide recycling options for electronics. In 2008, Plug-In partners collected and recycled 11 million cell phones, but considering that there are 100 million cell phones ready for recycling in the U.S., that number is actually pretty low.

“It’s easy for consumers to say that they don’t recycle because they don’t know about it, but if you just go on the Internet and search, you will see that most major carriers recycle,” says Jenni Chun, associate manager of Sustainability for LG Electronics.

“It’s definitely tough to change behavior. Consumers are reminded about cell phone recycling when they see the bins in stores, but in reality their phones are still in drawers, closets or the garage.”

Inconvenience is one of the top reasons people don’t recycle, but a close second is lack of knowledge. While we can’t make you shut down you computer, pack your car full of old gadgets and drive to the nearest recycling location, we can, however, give you the download on major retailers that offer free, in-store programs.

AT&T

What: All brands of cell phones, smartphones, PC cards, batteries and accessories

Quick fact: In 2009, AT&T reused and recycled an estimated 4.2 million phones and recycled 1.7 million pounds of accessories and batteries.

Best Buy

What: Multi-media projectors, printers, car audio, home audio, PDAs and hand-held devices, mobile electronics (GPS, cell phones, MP3 players), various game systems, televisions, monitors, laptops, ink cartridges, CDs and DVDs and rechargeable batteries

Need to know: Consumers pay $10 for recycling each TV, monitor and laptop, and in return, receive a $10 Best Buy gift card. All other items accepted through the program are free to the consumer. The program does not accept appliances, TVs larger than 32”, or console TVs of any size. All hard drives must be removed from laptops and desktops before they are accepted for recycling.

Quick fact: Best Buy collected more than 60 million pounds of electronics in 2009.

Goodwill

What: Computers, computer accessories and televisions

Need to know: Goodwill partnered with Dell Inc. for its residential computer recycling program, called RECONNECT. Its computer recycling and electronics recycling businesses creates jobs and supports job training programs.

Sprint

What: All wireless phones, batteries, accessories and data cards, regardless of carrier or condition

Need to know: Sprint Buyback offers customers an account credit to return select Sprint and Nextel-branded devices.

Quick fact: In 2009, Sprint collected 1,095,177 pounds of mobile phones and wireless accessories.

Staples

What: Cell phones, PDAs, inkjet cartridges and rechargeable batteries

Need to know: While recycling the above items is free of charge, for a $10 fee, customers can recycle computers, laptops, printers, scanners, faxes, all-in-ones, CRTs monitors and LCD monitors. Computer peripherals such as keyboards, mice, speakers and modems can be recycled for free with larger items at any Staples store.

Quick Fact: In 2009, Staples collected 7 million pounds of consumer electronics.

Even more options

You can make money for your electronic without stepping foot in a retail store. Gazelle.com accepts about 30,000 functional and defunct electronics. Using secondary retailers such as eBay, the website will estimate your item’s worth.

And no worries if your clunky television from 1989 doesn’t fetch any dough – Gazelle will recycle it for free. Gazelle pays for shipping and will even send a box for most orders.

As always, you can use Earth911 to find local recycling for electronics and more.

Find your local recycling
solution for Electronics

Related articles
How Much ‘Goodwill’ Is Your Donation Worth?
E-waste Service on a Silver Platter
Top 3 Green Factors to Consider When Buying a New Gadget

Amanda Wills

Amanda Wills

Managing Editor


Bibliography: You’re Missing Free Recycling

  1. Terri Sweat

    posted on June 27th, 2011 at 12:05 am

    It doesn't get much easier than this :)

  2. Andy Lau

    posted on September 13th, 2011 at 1:10 am

    erherh
As of June 17th 2011 we have upgraded our comment system to use Facebook comments. The below comments are closed and are listed for historical purposes.

8 Archived Comments

  1. Chris

    posted on July 5th, 2010 at 10:20 pm

    What this article fails to mention is that, “free”, recycling often exports its stuff to developing countries.

  2. Lindsey Ronay

    posted on July 6th, 2010 at 8:28 pm

    Unfortunately, this and other blogs also fail to mention that there are some smaller recycling companies that work with charitable partners. ECO-CELL, for example, works with over 100 zoos nationwide to help them raise money for education and conservation programs. We also allow you to donate the proceeds from your phone or phones to the charity of your choice.

    As to Chris’s point, we do sell some of the workable phones we collect to refurbishers (those phones are sold in the U.S. as well as developing markets) and those are the phones that actually garner the best prices for our fundraisers. However, we do take all cell phones and accessories regardless of condition and make sure they are properly recycled. We are a NO landfill program.

  3. Lindsey Ronay

    posted on July 6th, 2010 at 8:32 pm

    I neglected to mention though that I am grateful to blogs like earth911.com for bringing the issue of electronics recycling to the attention of so many people. Awareness is definitely the first step.

    Thanks. Lindsey
    http://www.eco-cell.com

  4. Sue

    posted on July 11th, 2010 at 1:07 pm

    Hello Amanda,

    Great article! That ratio of cell phones not being properly recycled is really pitfull. Like was brought out in this article, there are ways to make recycling a regular part of your everyday thinking. I don’t think most people would like to live near a “landfill” with stinky, toxic garbage around them. We all need to share in the responsibility of doing the right thing.

    Remember a long while back there was an ad campaign–it went something like this ” If 1 million people threw I piece of paper on the ground and never picked it up, think of how dirty “New York” would be for it all. It actually was a New York ad come to think of it. That has always stuck in my mind. The same is true for recycling. It all adds up to a whole lot of waste and total disregard for the environment.

  5. Chris

    posted on July 11th, 2010 at 10:51 pm

    The last link, Gazelle, doesn’t allow its partners to export anything from a developed to a developing country: http://gz-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/files/recycling_policy.pdf

  6. Jerry

    posted on July 17th, 2010 at 12:31 pm

    Interesting article and great value. The part about Gazelle accepting your old tv’s and paying the shipping and even sending a box….well this just isn’t the case as they only pay shipping and send a box IF your item meets the requirements of having a certain value. In fat they don’t even list CRT monitors in their search and don’t accept them.

  7. Harris

    posted on July 20th, 2010 at 10:44 am

    I agree with the many posters that the issue is building awareness. A recent study indicated that people would recycle their cell phones if they could be compensated for doing so. Only 10% of people recycle their cell phones today even though they can get compensated for doing so and it is easy. We really need to spread the word. Sites like http://www.SellYourCell.com and others make it really easy to get an instant quote, print out a pre-paid postage label, put you cell phone in the mail and get paid. I was just sitting next to someone on a plane yesterday and described the program. He indicated that he had a Droid sitting in a drawer since he got a new phone a couple months ago. I told him that he could get about $50 from http://www.SellYourCell.com for the phone and he had no idea that these programs exist. That would be a nice dinner for him and his wife. Let’s get the word out!

  8. Sherri

    posted on April 15th, 2011 at 2:59 pm

    The problem with recycling large older televisions is that some of us have no one to get them down the stairs and into the car. What then. I would like some help with this.

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