Best Buy Launches Recycle-By-Mail Program - Slashdot

Posted by BeauHD

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  You just thought your private data was going somewhere to die. Someone is going to gather up your pictures, your tax data, and anything else interesting you left lying around on your recycled goods.

  • Re:

    So before you recycle them, break them more so they're unusable.

    • Re:

      Are the people using this service thinking about that?

      I can drop my electronics off at a city site five days a week for free. And yes, I remove or break storage first.

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        The last time I recycled a computer at a Best Buy store, the website said that they would not accept it if the hard drive was still in it.

• Also 0 dollars to put them in my regular trash.

  Best Buy should be paying me 30 dollars for the inconvenience of going through them.

  • 2 hidden comments

  • • Re: For 0 dollars I can hit them with a hammer

      Lead solder and mercury haven't been used in electronics since 2006

      • Re:

        well, maybe some people have older stuff they have been holding onto for various reasons, my wife for example has a laptop from 2005 that doesn't work, but she still has been loath to part with it, though I have offered to copy the data from the hard drive and zero it out, then write random to it, several times, to make recovery more difficult.

        Me, well my brother gave me an old mac around 2004, I have been holding on to it because... well, gift from my brother, I should really recycle it. My mom has a bun

• Pretty sure the UPS trucks aren't zero carbon.

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    >"Pretty sure the UPS trucks aren't zero carbon."

    Um, yeah. How is this going to achieve anything with carbon emissions? Even if transport wasn't involved, there isn't anything reducing "carbon emissions" in this equation. Not like they are going to "recycle" or "reuse" a broken mp3 player, busted speaker, sun-damaged keyboard, defective Game Boy, or crappy amplifier.

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      It looks good on the ESG shareholder report. Look at the middle of the little banner on the bottom of the google search page, that is a downright lie. You can't be neutral if you have ever existed for a time on the planet.

• • Re:

    Washington State has an e-cycling partnership with Goodwill, you can drop off any electronics (working or not) at any goodwill donation spot in the state.
    • 1 hidden comment

    • Re:

      That's a smart idea.

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      Even say, a 27" CRT television? It is a 'flat screen' so has extra glass making it 91 lbs.:/

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        Yes -- I've dropped off a 27" Trinitron CRT TV myself no problem, along with a non-working 65" LCD TV. They will take any consumer electronics (TV, printers, monitors, computers, laptops, game consoles, stereos, car radios, scanners, phones, etc.)
        In our town Goodwill has multiple donation sites that are basically a large semi-truck stationed in the parking lots of some of the large grocery stores -- much more convenient than drive umpteen miles out of town to the dump, and they'll will take the e-waste at

  • Re:

    well, that may be true, but a bunch of people don't live in cities... I mean, we live about 40 miles from a small city... I am certain that there are a bunch of peoplewith the same issues. Oh, and when I used to live in the city, you were required to have a dump sticker to use the dump, they wouldn't just let anyone in for free.
• You buy a product and once it is no longer of use trying to get rid of it is the same as trying to dispose of toxic waste. I bought a phone at Best Buy, had to change the battery (which they don't sell) - went in to recycle the old battery (since hey I bought the phone [and the included battery] there): 'We don't accept phone batteries'.
  
  Quite frankly the situation is getting to the point that retailers should be responsible for what they sell, including end of life disposal. Better yet make the manufacturers responsible for taking back their junk product that didn't last.
  
  I actually like the phone, but the battery was a dud.

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    Costs can be a pain especially with UPS batteries.

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      >"Costs can be a pain especially with UPS batteries."

      We don't have any problem with UPS batteries- which are pretty much all lead-acid. Almost 100% of lead acid batteries ARE actually recycled. The place we buy batteries from just picks up bad/dead ones from us at no cost when they drop off our order of new batteries. Now, was that cost built-in to the new batteries we are buying? I don't know. We aren't paying a core charge (like I do when I buy a car battery).

      • Re:

        Agreed, Sealed Lead Acid in a UPS is not a problem, almost everyone that takes batteries will take them for recycling at no charge. Since they a) don't explode and b) have easily reusable metals. Phone batteries though - what a disaster.
• I used to take all my e-waste the recyclers, but found out that the vast majority of these e-recycle facilities are just businesses that scrape off the gold and other precious metals in the electronics and throw all the rest in the land fill, it's basically a scam. Maybe not all do this but if you find a e-waste facility and they don't take certain items like old CRT's TV's then its a scam. The reason they don't take CRT's is because there is nothing of value in them they can take.
• I'll stick with Staples free in-store recycling, they accept a large number of things:
  
  https://www.staples.com/deals/it-s-recycling-day-every-day/BI3000592
  
  and it doesn't cost anything.
  
  It's nice that they take the lead-acid batteries from various UPS units, I have several of those a year that
  get replaced. I've also recycles at least a half dozen computers and notebooks with them, but I ALWAYS
  remove any disk drives, they get recycled with a hammer, or turned into model railroad parts (RE magnets).
  
  As it is, I h

  • • Re:

      Lol. A good 40 years ago, I used to have one. Can't remember what I did with it though, probably
      put it out for 'big-trash' day. Now, there's enough retro computer collectors, it might be sellable
      through eBay or Facebook market place.
      • 1 hidden comment
• or does it ship directly to 3rd world country, while BB gets reimbursed by government?

• 1) Your data will be harvested, no matter what the terms or conditions say (they'll do it offshore).
  2) It will most certainly not be sustainably reclaimed. Even the briefest look at those conditions existing RIGHT NOW related to e-waste reclamation suggests this is a joke.

  They make a profit; you get a clean conscience.

• by amabaie ( 1481951 ) on Thursday April 06, 2023 @11:00PM (#63431982)

  Or, next time you are passing by Best Buy, drop them off for free. You're welcome.

• Your hard drives before sending them away

  • 1 hidden comment