![[logo] US EPA](http://www.epa.gov/epafiles/images/logo_epaseal.gif){kind=logo}
Staples Hits Easy Button for eCycling!
EPA’s Plug-In To eCycling partner Staples, Inc., purveyor of the “Easy Button” and office supplies, has become a trailblazer in the world of electronics recycling by making it easier for customers to recycle, or “ecycle,” unwanted electronics, or e-waste, every day. Customers now can simply bring their used computers, monitors, laptops, printers, fax machines, and other electronics to any Staples store in the country for recycling. Staples is the first national retailer to offer computer recycling in all their stores every day.
The Framingham, MA-based firm launched the pioneering initiative in May 2007. According to Mark Buckley, Staples’ vice president of environmental affairs, this new program will give people easy access to recycling. He says, “We know that small businesses and consumers want to recycle their used office technology but are often frustrated by the lack of convenient options available. By making it easy to recycle, Staples helps customers take action in handling e-waste in an environmentally responsible way.”
Here's how it works:
- Customers drop off their old equipment at the customer service desk at any Staples store during regular store hours. All types of electronics are accepted, except TVs and large, floor model copiers.
- Staples will recycle any manufacturer’s products, whether or not they were purchased from Staples.
- A $10 fee per piece of large equipment is charged to cover handling, transport, product disassembly, and recycling. Smaller computer peripherals, such as keyboards and mice, are recycled for free.
- Equipment is delivered to Amandi Services, an electronics recycler, which disassembles the equipment and recycles the raw materials—such as the plastics, metals, printed circuit boards and cathode ray tubes (the video display components of televisions and computer monitors)—back into commodities. Recovering valuable materials to make new products reduces pollution and conserves natural resources.
The
nuts and bolts of the program were developed in conjunction
with the Product Stewardship Institute (PSI) and Plug-In
To eCycling, EPA’s partnership with consumer electronics
manufacturers and retailers to offer consumers more opportunities
to donate or recycle their used electronics. Back in the summer
of 2004, Plug-In, PSI, and Staples launched a 6-week
pilot program to measure the success of retail-based electronics
”take back” program. The results were impressive
and the consumer response was encouraging. In just 6 weeks
and from 56 collection points, some 5,250 units were taken
in, diverting more than 115,000 pounds of electronics from
the waste stream.
Staples’s eCycling efforts exemplify the types of activities that the Resource Conservation Challenge encourages within the national priority area of Green Initiatives—Electronics.
