Staples Will Recycle Anything (for $10)
by EcoGeek.org on 05.21.07
Today Staples launched its national "Computer and Office Technology Recycling Program." Thus becoming the first national store to offer everyday, in-store recycling of pretty much any sort of electronic equipment. Just bring in your computer, monitor, printer, fax machine, scanner, etc. and they'll recycle it "in accordance with environmental laws."
Of course, we haven't yet hit the golden moment...when a big box store will recycle a computer for free (or better yet, pay you for all of those nice expensive materials inside your old equipment). Staples will gladly accept your equipment as long as you give them $10. They will, however, recycle mice and keyboards for free. Frankly, it's worth $10 to me. I've got two broken down printers sitting in my basement, but I'll be darned if they ever see the inside of a trash bin.
We'd all be better off if the original manufacturer would take the equipment back, and a good number of them (Dell, Toshiba, Apple and others) do. But for equipment that has no other destiny besides leeching into our groundwater, Staples is the way to go.
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It's a good start! :)
Large comment thread on this at Lifehacker, linked to treehugger as well regarding staples throwing out ink cartridges featured on Treehugger before.
Link to Lifehacker article
Yep, and I was the one to call attention to this way back when. Staples dumpstered their cartridges at many stores. I kept posting here asking why TH was not going after them for this, even though at the time TH was happy to post anti-Wal-Mart stuff. Of course no answer.
So now I ask it again. Confront Staples about this practice and get them to write a statement that it won't happen again this time.
"Yep, and I was the one to call attention to this way back when. Staples dumpstered their cartridges at many stores. I kept posting here asking why TH was not going after them for this, even though at the time TH was happy to post anti-Wal-Mart stuff. Of course no answer."
Do you have pictures? Any evidence at all? I think yuor accusations would work a lot better with it.
Do you have pictures? Any evidence at all?
A rhetorical question, if ever there was one.
I think yuor accusations would work a lot better with it.
Be prepared to hear some nutty, vicious insults.
now if only i could get to staples without driving...
Billy, don't take offense. It's true that claims need grounding and pictures are worth a lot.
For anyone in San Francisco, a company called Green Citizen will recycle your electronics for about the same price, and will allow you to track where your parts end up, so you know they're not contributing to environmental justice issues in third world countries. I wonder what type of recycling Staples plans to do with the electronics they're collecting. Hopefully not ship them off to the developing world to be dismantled by children, poisoning the water and whatnot...
Yep, I have pics from two local staples. I also have a friend who was an assistant manager and is happy to give anyone who needs it a written statement. Interesting enough, way back when, several other people claiming to be Staples employees at the time claimed to have been instructed to do this by their managers. You can search the archives here and find them.
So, Mr. Smarty Pants, what say YOU?
So predictable.
Yes, it is a very safe prediction that Staples will dump this stuff based on their prior actions. I'm glad you get the point. Bravo! Now let's hold Staple's feet to the fire on this.
speaking of staples....our office generates tons of used staples -- not the store, but the type to hold paper together. we collect these staples in hopes of recycling them, but have no idea where to do this. can anyone help???
To endorse ecogal's comment, I've used Green Citizen before and they are awesome! They take basic stuff like batteries and CDs for free. A lot of other stuff is free, too. If it's not, it's charged on a per pound basis, which is at a reasonable rate and probably cheaper than Staples' fee. Plus, you can recycle pretty much anything here, so why not just save up for one huge trip where you can get rid of everything at one place- rare to find for recycling collection places.
They have a south bay location, too, in Los Altos, right on the Mountain View border.