DEC 04

Recycling electronics - good. Throwing away electronics - bad. How many gadget-happy Americans live by this standard? Not many, according to a new survey commissioned by retailer Staples. It found, after having a research firm survey some 1,000 adults online during October, that only 23 percent of us recycle old or unused electronics. Forty-one percent throw these items away or don't get rid of them at all.

The survey seems to be tied to America Recycles Day, which was November 15. The National Recycling Coalition added to the information Staples provided by estimating that over 133,000 computers are discarded without thought daily here in the United States. This is in addition to information from the EPA, which reports we generate around two million tons of used electronics yearly.

One other thing to contemplate, says Staples, is that between 2000 and 2007 an estimated 500 million computers have become obsolete here alone. Now the retailer, of course, wants you to come in-house to recycle, saying it's the first national chain to "launch an in-store, everyday computer and office technology recycling program," which lets you recycle any piece of tech for a small fee. Now we aren't saying you have to use Staples to recycle your old IBM PC, but perhaps you should find a better home for it than your garage or the city dump next time you clean out your stuff? Just a thought...

Comments (8)

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Sometimes the recycling is worse than th
written by Thomas Boutell, December 04, 2007

Do they recycle these in an environmentally sane fashion? Or do they get the gold out at any cost and dump the rest in the Yangtze?

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50% of a story
written by weee, December 05, 2007

Thomas and I can't be the only ones who'd like to know what Staples are going to do with the stuff!
Are they going to:
dump it in pristine rivers?
send it to China for them to dump it in pristine rivers?
send it to...?
have they got a partner in this?
are they making a large investment in it?
what motivated them to do it?
so many questions that we'd be interested in hearing answers to.
Will you consider giving stories 450 words rather than 235, please...

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Make recycling free
written by Andrew, December 05, 2007

The masses, who are generally apathetic about the environment, will only accept electronics recycling if it is cheaper to recycle computers than to throw them out. This means that either recycling old computers is free or throwing them out is heavily taxed. If it is cheaper to just chuck that old computer, few will bother to recycle it.

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written by Mel Carroll, December 20, 2007

Illinois has an electronics recycling program that is pretty widely used - computers, phones, faxes, tv's. No river dumping as far as we know. We're just trying to keep our landfills less toxic by recycling metals.

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Insider's viewpoint
written by Chris, January 22, 2008

Just from working for Staples as associate and as one of their EasyTechs, I can tell you only what they have told us. Staples is collecting the e-waste (the company has collected cell phones for years, just not the big stuff) and sending it back to their warehouses as appropriate. From their, its shipped to Amandi who is allegedly "nationally known" and very responsible. Amandi does make a point to completely wipe hard drives as that's part of the fee charged.

The small fee is $10 per monitor, computer, or printer. Small objects like mice, keyboards, speakers, et cetera are free to recycle. They do not take the very large office copiers though.

On another note, Staples does firmly recycle ink cartridges. Now there's big money. As a note to that though: HP buys up all of the HP brand cartridges that Staples collects (and pays you for) and crushes them down to raw materials for recycling into new cartridges.

Feel free to shoot me your questions if you want to know more about how Staples really operates.

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but who's keeping them accountable to their claims?
written by still skeptical, August 18, 2009

I am currently looking for a place to recycle the toner and printer cartridges my office produces. When I asked an acquaintance of mine who used to split his time between my company and Staples, but now works exclusively for Staples, whether I could trust their recycling program, he was unequivocal - the cartridges are not recycled as advertised, they are thrown away.

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written by Sheri, February 11, 2010

HP has a recycling program for all consumable printer components. Our office mails the components back. Ink cartridges, toner, fusers, etc. The bigger ones like fusers usually come with a prepaid shipping label so it is free for us.

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written by Jim, October 10, 2012

Why would Staples pay you $2 for each toner cartridge and then throw them out as one poster implies? I easily turn in the maximum number, per month, from my workplace and receive a $20 Reward. It doesn't make sense that Staples would pay me $20 (and multiply that by the thousands of people who turn them in) and then throw the cartridges out. Staples must be getting something good out of this.

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