Best Buy adds an e-waste recycling program

Good news: Best Buy's going to let you drop off your e-waste at its stores, free of charge! (via grist) Bad news: This e-waste recycling effort's only a test program in 117 U.S. stores -- none of which are in SoCal.

Hopefully the program will expand, because it'll be a nice, convenient, eco-friendly recycling option for those of you storing old TVs and VCRs in your garages. In the meantime, you can take advantage of Best Buy's haul-away and pick-up program; the company will pick up and recycle your old electronics if you buy a replacement from one of its stores.

Best Buy will also pick up your items without your buying a replacement -- if you're willing to cough up $100 for the  service. A better option, in that case, would be to recycle the e-waste via Staples for $10 (downside: no TV take-backs) or via your nearest city e-waste recycling center (downside: inconvenient hours). Here's your full range of options for getting rid of e-waste in eco-fashion.

While reading about Best Buy's test program, I found out more about some of the company's other cool eco-programs that have already been instituted in all stores. Did you know that each Best Buy has a recycling kiosk at the front that will accept small items for free recycling? The stuff you can recycle there ranges from the more common ink cartridges, rechargeable batteries and cellphones, to more difficult-to-recycle products like CDs and DVDs.

I have a huge stack of CDs collected from press kits (many companies use CDs to distribute images) over the last few years, and will be making a trip to drop them off this week!

Photo by Lief K-Brooks

Comments

[James Chen]

Very nice to know. Now I can save $10 apiece on that old laptop and printer sitting in my garage!