Check out the full list of what staples accepts now part of their expanded recycling programs.
https://www.staples.com/stores/recycling#workingtowardsabrightertomorrow
More companies should start to follow staples lead and offer return points for packaging and products that reach their end of life.
Kudos to Staples, their stores might see me more often.
We’ll gladly accept and responsibly recycle the following:
Adapters & hubs
Apple® AirTag® trackers
Battery backup devices
Cable/satellite receivers
Calculators
Car & wall chargers
CD/DVD/Blu-ray discs & players
Coffee brewers (less than 40 lb.)
Computers & Mac®
Computers
Computer speakers
Connected home devices
Digital & video cameras
Digital projectors
Earbuds & AirPods®
Fax machines
Flash drives
Gaming consoles & controllers
GPS devices
Hard drives
Headphones & headsets
Keyboards & mice
Label makers
Laminators
Laptops & MacBook®
Mobile phones & iPhone®
Monitors (CRT, LED/LCD, plasma)
MP3 players & iPod®
Printers & multifunction devices
Routers & modems
Scanners
Shredders
Small servers
Smart speakers & HomePod®
Smart watches & Apple Watch®
Stereo receivers
Streaming devices & Apple TV®
Stylus pens & Apple Pencil®
Tablets, iPad® & eReaders
USB & Lightning® cables
Webcams
I literally just set a box of half this stuff in front of Goodwill and ran away. Next time, though…
Why would you just set it in front of Goodwill? That’s littering!
You should go donate it directly in closed boxes so they can’t just ignore it on the sidewalk. Plus, they’ll probably even give you a coupon for your next visit.
Thanks for posting the list!
Full details here: https://www.staples.com/stores/recycling
For a split second there while scrolling down the list, the term “Flesh Light” blinked in my mind.
Wow that’s a useful list of things they accept for recycling. It’s a total PITA to recycle anything electronics related in my city especially stuff like computers & hard drives let alone cables. That may end up getting me inside a Staples more often than once every year or two so maybe their plan is going to work.
10 off on purchase of 30+ if you recycle.
smart way to drive traffic.
Great, we should see many more companies accepting back everything they sell as recycling. It should be the norm.
Legitimately, i was floored when I learned how much bestbuy charges for recycling electronics (smart tv, specifically). Like motherfucker the precious metals in the components alone should be enough for you why are you charging me a benjamin on top of that??
I figured out how to recycle it through my city, instead. Massive pain in the ass to do, but at least they didn’t CHARGE ME
TVs seem especially hard to recycle.
Not really.
You just smash’m up to get the PCBs out of them, ship’m across the world to a 3rd world country, where you pay children to douse them in chemicals and light them on fire, then dig through the toxic much to fish out the metal nuggets to send out for processing.
E-Z-P-Z.
There’s a local recycling company near me, and anything like that (including monitors) has a $25 surcharge to take it, but they take everything else free of charge. It was great when I did hardware support, because we could just huck most customers’ old gear at them and it got properly handled.
Interesting idea
of course i learn of this today, a day after i just spent $10 each to ‘recycle’ a bunch of dead monitors.
I worked for Staples in my college years. They used to throw away bales upon bales of recyclable products every day while pumping up their image as a green place to shop or whatever. Maybe it was just the management of that specific store. Anyway, good on Staples for offering recycling services.
Unfortunately this could be the case and the cynic in me feels this could be a green washing scheme like you said.
But hopefully with what some cities are doing now with charging the full economic and social cost of blue & black bin programs to companies and manufactures this could start having a real good impact.
Specially since most manufactures shift the cost of recycling and trash to communities and tax payers. Instead this cost should be internalised by the manufacturer and retailer.
Hopefully this kind of shift promotes better sustainable packaging, and prevents things like planed obsolescence and fast fashion.
The cost of paper and plastic recycling is passed on with the co-operation of government. Their interests are aligned with those of industry. The cost is handballed (‘externalized’ if you want the slime term) first to individuals and ultimately to the environment. With moral hazards like this I wouldn’t expect substantial change to be driven by authorities. It’s going to take technological breakthroughs.
i’m surprised these guys still exist even.
Hopefully they’re actually doing proper e waste “recycling”
You and me both, hopefully its not just being shipped to india.
A lot of better US recycling programs are popping up because India and China are accepting less or just not accepting waste from other countries.
too bad we can’t prevent these massive companies from producing shit loads of e waste or anything.
If only that would help.
so far the best e waste recyling i’ve seen so far is warehousing it and reselling it to nerds who want it for cheap.
And anybody else who would ever want it also i suppose.
Does anyone know some of the finer grained details of this recycling program? I’m not exactly a regular Staples customer, but I definitely have some shit that is better off recycled. Like no chance of fixing a few phones I’ve found smashed in the road…
For at least the last five years, the Staples in the Boulder 29th St Mall takes any electronics you have for recycling. The process is you hand it to them or drop it in a box they have sitting there.
Unsure if this applies to other Staples, but at least that one in Boulder, 29th St Mall, does this easy
Computers & Mac®??
Mac is a registered trademark?
Also its not a computer?
lots of people view the computer landscape as PCs and Macs. nevermind that Macs are pretty much always personal computers (as in computer hardware designed for use by a single individual at a time; non-server hardware)
Staples Easy Rewards program terms and conditions apply. For full program details visit staples.com/easy. Expires 3/30/24
The program is already expired.
This is a really great thing. My town doesn’t do ewaste programs and we had some UPS batteries to get rid of a few months ago. We ended up giving them to one of our parents in the city to take to their program
You can take lead acid batteries to local auto parts stores for recycling.
I slept on Staples for awhile until I had to go to them a few times. It’s pretty cool, you can send mail through them and I can print stuff with them since I infrequently need to do so and it’s much cheaper/less hassle then buying a printer. Not to mention saves me physical space in my house lol. They also help some local stores around me which I think is cool.
Not going to lie. You had me in the first half.
FYI this appears to be the US Staples only. In Canada (or at least Ontario), Goodwill accepts electronics recycling, now that Staples has shut that down.
In BC the bottle depot usually takes electronics
