Recycle your old electronics

How many old monitors, laptops, and miscellaneous computer parts do you have stuffed in a box somewhere? What about cellphones? Televisions? DVD players?

When we upgrade our electronics, it's hard to know what to do with the old ones. We know we can't just throw them away (in the case of televisions and monitors) or we think that surely someone will eventually want that slow old laptop that we won't even use. What a lot of people don't realize is that all of these items can be recycled.

Maybe you've seen the recent Best Buy commercial that says "No matter where you bought it, we'll recycle it." I looked into their program and found that they will take a lot of stuff for recycling, from electronics to used toner cartridges to old cds/dvds/cases to used up plastic gift cards. They even offer an appliance haul-away service. If there is something that they won't accept, they will help find someone who will. I wondered what they did with all of this stuff, and here is what they have written in their FAQs:

The products are removed from our stores through third party logistics, consolidated and then delivered directly to one of our contracted recycling partners. The recyclers will then determine if the product can be repaired, repurposed or recycled. Using various technologies our recyclers dismantle the electronics, separating out various commodities (Plastics, Glass, Metals, etc) which are repurposed into new products or delivered to a specialized recycler to be further processed and repurposed.

Best Buy isn't the only place to turn to to recycle your old electronics - the EPA website has a great list of companies that offer electronics recycling.

So, this Earth Day, you can do some real spring cleaning and finally get rid of all those old electronics that clutter up your closets. Recycle them!