Got a bunch of old computers lying around the house? I sure do. My closet looks like a frickin’ vintage Mac museum. I always think that I’ll find some use for them someday, but I never do.
The problem is that it’s illegal to just throw them away in the regular trash (all that mercury and stuff in there) and dumps will charge you $15 to recycle it. I even tried taking it to WeirdStuff, but IIsi and LCII were too old for even them.
So this weekend I brought 2 of my old Macs (you didn’t think I’d get rid of all of them, did you?) down to Office Depot for their free computer recycling program running through Sept. 6. That’s OfficeDepot, not OfficeMax or Staples. I can never get those straight.
Supposedly you can’t drop off more than one computer, so I came with one and they directed me to put it in the corner on a dolly. That was it. Later in the day, we came back and dropped off another. I probably could have brought in a truckload and they wouldn’t have noticed. By this time there was a dolly and two shopping carts full of old computers there.
It’s probably a good ploy to get me to go to Office Depot since I can’t remember the last time I set foot in one of those stores. I didn’t even know there was one nearby. Too bad I didn’t have any time to gadget gawk this weekend.
Now that I’ve got some closet space back, the only thing left to do is buy more computers. 🙂
Many of the electronics stores are doing the same thing. Offering consumers a chance to recycle their old electronics and give them 5-10% discount on new items. This is a good strategy to attract more people into the store. I have been using E-Tech recycling for all my electronics recycling. They take everything!! http://www.etechrecycling.com
Office Depot has the WORST call centers in the world. Everytime I have to talk to those Phillipine outsource call center staff I cringe. What a waste of time. My business is slowly transferring to Staples and I’ll be done with Office Depot in a few weeks.