Old electronics have a talent for making themselves invisible. The laptop that got replaced two years ago is still in the office, the printer that stopped cooperating is in the garage and the desktop tower is somewhere in a closet behind things you haven’t touched since you moved in. None of it is being used, none of it is going away on its own, and the vague intention to deal with it keeps getting deferred because dealing with it feels complicated. It isn’t. Most major retailers and manufacturers run free take-back programs that handle old tech responsibly, and using them typically requires nothing more than a short drive and a few minutes of prep.<\/p>\n
Major retailers such as Best Buy and Staples have become drop-off hubs for digital junk. You can walk into a store with a dead PC or a clunky old scanner and hand it over for free, regardless of where you bought it. Some of these places will even give you a discount on new gear or a trade-in credit just for helping them reclaim the heavy metals and plastics that don’t belong in a landfill. It’s the easiest way to recover your storage space without feeling like a jerk for tossing electronics in the trash.<\/p>\n The only real “work” on your end is making sure you aren’t handing over your entire life history along with the hardware. Before you dump a device, you need to do a legitimate data wipe — not just drag files to the trash can. A 10-minute factory reset or a dedicated drive-scrubbing tool ensures your old tax returns and saved passwords don’t become someone else’s property. Stop acting like you’re going to “fix” that laptop from 2015 and let a professional recycler break it down for parts instead.<\/p>\n Wherever you take or mail in your items to be recycled, you’ll want to protect\u00a0your data<\/span><\/span>\u00a0by removing it as best you can. One way to do this is to perform a factory reset on your computer. Our\u00a0guide walks<\/span><\/span>\u00a0you through the process. <\/p>\n Some retail stores will accept computers and printers for recycling, but it’s not always a free service. Policies vary by company. <\/p>\n You can recycle your old Apple computers, monitors<\/span><\/span> and peripherals, such as printers, for free at an Apple store, but there’s a costly catch. According to the Apple Free Recycling\u00a0program, you must purchase a qualifying Apple\u00a0computer\u00a0or monitor to receive this service. Need another option? A third-party company called Gazelle buys old\u00a0MacBooks<\/span> to recycle them. After accepting Gazelle’s offer, you print a prepaid label or request a prepaid box and ship the machine to them. <\/p>\n Read more: <\/strong>Phone and Laptop Repair Goes Mainstream With Push From iFixit<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Best Buy generally accepts up to three household items per household per day to be recycled for free, including desktop computers and printers, as well as other items ranging from e-readers to vacuum cleaners. While three is the limit for most items, there’s a higher limit for laptops — Best Buy will take five of those per household per day. Note that rules for dropping off monitors vary by state, and it’s not always free to do so. Best Buy also offers a mail-in\u00a0recycling service for select items, but that’s also not free. A small box that holds up to 6 pounds costs $23, while a large box (up to 15 pounds) costs $30. One CNET editor recently lugged in an old, nonworking tube TV-VCR combo for e-cycling, and was happy to pay $30 to be rid of it. <\/p>\n Office Depot and OfficeMax merged in 2013. The retailers offer a tech trade-in program both in-store and online, where you may be able to get a store gift card in exchange for your old computers and printers. If the device has no trade-in value, the company will recycle it for free. Office Depot also sells e-waste recycling boxes that you can fill with electronics to be recycled and then drop off at the stores, but they aren’t free. The small boxes\u00a0cost $8.39<\/span> and hold up to 20 pounds, the medium ones\u00a0cost $18.29<\/span> and hold up to 40 pounds, and the large boxes\u00a0cost $28<\/span> and hold up to 60 pounds. <\/p>\n You can bring your old desktop computers, laptops, printers and more to the Staples checkout counter to be recycled for free, even if they weren’t purchased there. According to a Staples rep, the retailer also has a free at-home battery recycling box, which has led customers to recycle thousands of batteries per week, up from an earlier average of 50 per week. Here’s a list of\u00a0everything\u00a0that can be recycled at Staples. <\/p>\nWhat to do before you recycle your old computer <\/h2>\n
Where to recycle your old printers and computers <\/h2>\n
Apple <\/h3>\n
Best Buy <\/h3>\n
Office Depot\u00a0 <\/h3>\n
Staples\u00a0 <\/h3>\n
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