Recycling used electronics is pretty important – arguably more important than recycling paper and plastic. E-waste is loaded with toxic heavy metals such as mercury and cadmium. Such chemicals are bad for the environment, but worse for the impoverished citizens of developing countries who all too often need to earn their living by crudely mining valuable metals out of our discarded computers, TVs and cell phones.
It’s a good thing, then, that Radio Shack is offering some decent incentives to recycle your old iPod. They are starting a program which allows customers to register their obsolete gadgets and ship them (pre-paid, of course) to a collecting location, where they make sure your item is in the condition you said it was. If so, you get a Radio Shack gift certificate (hey, I never said there was nothing in it for them). You can appraise your item online.
Radio Shack is certainly not the first to come up with this recycling model; others are doing very similar things. And seeing as getting a bit of cash for an old cell phone makes so much more sense than throwing it into a bin with banana peels and coffee filters, this ecogeek is optimistic about e-recycling becoming the norm.
Via GoodCleanTech
Image via Radio Shack
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written by Kelly, October 31, 2008
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written by Kate, October 31, 2008
What I am also impressed by is that I have not seen any commercials about how Radio Shack is doing this, which might just be because they do not have the ad budget. At the same time, it gives me higher rapport for the company than if I had the commercial shove the "we are green too" message in my face. Good for RadioShack and I am definitely participating in this next time I need to recycle an electronic.
Thank you for the great post!
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written by David, October 31, 2008
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written by Andrew, November 01, 2008
If the market for the recycled products is in China, then maybe it's a good place for the operation.
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written by Adam, November 01, 2008
And seeing as getting a bit of cash for an old cell phone makes so much more sense than throwing it into a bin with banana peels and coffee filters
I know it was just an example, but there are many places that take donated cell phones and put them to better use. If you wanted to make money off of your electronics you could also always sell them on craigslist, ebay, etc. It would be less wasteful to sell your electronics to someone else rather than recycle them and that person buying new. The greenest electronic is the one that already exists. ;) Don't get me wrong though, I think this is still good news.
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