Where to Recycle, Donate, or Sell Your Gadgets

[Tammy Barbee]

Computers, cell phones, PDA’s, iPhone, batteries, digital cameras; these are some of the things that we might use as part of our business or on a daily basis. When you decide to buy a new computer or upgrade to a new cell phone, what do you do with the old equipment you have? Do you give it to your friends or family? Do you recycle or donate it? Or do you want to sell it to get a little cash from it? These are questions that you can ask yourself. However, I have come up with a list of places where you can donate, recycle, or get a little cash from your gadgets that are no longer needed.

United States Postal Service. USPS has a “Mail Back “ program that allows you to use a free envelope to mail back certain gadgets with paid postage.

My Green Electronics. My Green Electronics is a website and a place where you can donate and recycle some of your computer equipment. Just put in your zip code and it will find a nearby location to donate or recycle your equipment that you do not need. For more information, please visit http://www.mygreenelectronics.org/

Call to Protect. The national Call to Protect program enables people to retire their wireless phones in a manner that will help the environment and raise funds for national organizations working to end partner violence. It seems as though you can get a tax deduction from donating your items by filling out the form that is on the website. For more information, please visit http://www.wirelessfoundation.org/CalltoProtect//

The National Cristina Foundation. This is a place where can also donate computer equipment for both PC’s and Mac’s. However, they do have some requirements for donating. The benefits of donating can be tax deductible as noted on their site for individuals and businesses. I also like the fact under their FAQ’s; they offer a way to remove all the data from your machine by going to Google and such for a data removal tool that will remove the data from your machine. One program that can be used to remove data from your computer before it is sent is called Eraser (http://sourceforge.net/projects/eraser/)forWindows.

Note: Make sure you have your data that you want backed up before using the data removal tool.

Gazelle. This is a site where you can sell or recycle your gadgets which includes selling your computer, cell phones, PDA’s, digital cameras, and many more gadgets. This site can be found at www.gazelle.com and it appears that you need to register for an account for this.

Staples. For me, I particular use Staples to return ink cartridges. At one point in time, they were actually allowing you to bring your ink cartridges from your printer and turn them in for about three dollars a piece and then they would send you a check in the mail. Now it seems like you can turn in your ink cartridges but it goes onto your Staples rewards card. This information can be found at http://www.staples.com/sbd/cre/products/3dollar_inkrecycle/

Also, Staples recycles cell phones as well.

My Bone Yard. This is another site where you can sell or recycle your gadgets (cell phones, laptops, cameras) for some cash. This information can be found at http://www.myboneyard.com/?q=main where registration is required.