I always feel a twinge of guilt when I throw away an empty inkjet cartridge or broken electronic gadget. If you’re the same way, this program might help ease the pain of tossing your tech junk.
The United States Postal Service recently announced a program for free recycling of inkjet cartridges and small electronics, including PDAs, Blackberries, digital cameras, iPods and MP3 players. The Mail Back program is being piloted in 1500 Post Office branches around the country, but could go nationwide this fall.
Participating Post Office locations offer free, postage-paid envelopes for consumers to take and use to mail back their recyclable items. The postage is paid by Clover Technologies Group, which refurbishes and resells as many of the devices as possible. Pieces that cannot be reused are broken down for parts, or into recyclable components. Clover boasts a “zero waste to landfill” policy, which means “it does everything it can to avoid contributing any materials to the nation’s landfills.”
I think this program is a great idea. Most people will not go to the trouble and expense of recycling, unless it is cheap and easy. You can bet I’ll bet checking my local Post Office lobby for those Mail Back envelopes. I have an empty inkjet cartridge on my desk right now.
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That is bloody brilliant! I wish they had a service like that here in Canada… I believe very much in recycling as much as possible, and old computers are a big problem for us!
Cindy Lietz, The Polymer Clay Tutor’s last blog post..Making Lentil Bead Holes Using Piercing Wire and a Gentle Touch
Awesome!
@Cindy Lietz: The printer/toner cartridges in my office at work come with return boxes and labels so they can be reused… I’m in Waterloo, Ontario. I think it’s the Canon products that have the return program free of charge.
It would be very awesome if Canada Post stepped up to the plate with this!
Lisa365’s last blog post..Day #99
It’s a brilliant idea, but most people don’t seem to know that there’s significant value in recycling ink cartridges. You drog them off at Best Buy and feel holy and then Best Buy refills them and resells them for a bundle.
feefifoto’s last blog post..Simple Meme For My Simple Mind
This is a very cool deal. Of course, we live approximately 2.8 miles from nowhere, which means we should have the program… sometime in 2022, I think. Probably December, 2022.
Cool catch, though!
Bob Younce at the Writing Journey’s last blog post..How To Write the Best Damn Food Blog on the Internet
I think it is bloody brilliant!
Christy’s last blog post..See me blog
That is the first time I heard about that. I’m going to have to visit my local post office and see if they offer that service. That is a great way to encourage recycling!
Cascia @ Healthy Moms’s last blog post..Our New Layout
That sounds like a great idea, thanks for letting us know. I can contact my post office and see if they have this already or if its still waiting to be a new service.
This doesn’t have much to do with the post, but a couple years ago someone blew up our local postal mail box. It was crazy, and I don’t think they ever caught the person, but seeing that picture reminded me of it.
Rachel
The Baked Blogger
I will let my office know about this. This is excellent info.
Chris’s last blog post..A Father’s Advice To His Son on the Arts of Dating
That is pretty awesome. I feel real bad and somewhat guilty too everytime I toss an ol’ inkjet cartridge out. I’d definitely do this if they make it nice and easy to do.
Now if only they’d do the same thing for old computers and computer monitors…
Andrew’s last blog post..Oh the Horror
I love that. I am not a green-freek, but I just hate seeing those things go to the landfill, especially old electronics.
How do you find out what cities are doing it? I have not heard anything here.
Minnesota Investment Property’s last blog post..Stupid Property Repairs #3