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.

I think these little USB rechargeable batteries are going to be huge. They are NiMH cells, rechargeable at any USB port. You don’t need a cradle and cable. Just charge and go. Not only are they easy to use, but they are nicer for the environment, by preventing the disposal of lots of regular batteries. I don’t remember all the chemistry of batteries in landfills (those grad-school brain cells have been taken over by new bits of information, like the names of all four Wiggles), but batteries in landfills are bad!

In addition to AA cells, they will be available in AAA, 9 volt, and sizes for cell phones and PDAs. Visit usbcell.com for more information.