• PC World
• »Consumer Advice

If you've got electronics gear so old that you can't foist it off even on your relatives, it's time to recycle it.

That's not as easy as it used to be, what with old standbys like the Salvation Army and Goodwill Industries becoming picky about getting stuck with the costs of disposing of outdated technology. Now, Office Depot can help you out: the company is offering free recycling of one technology product per person per day through Labor Day (September 6).

Office Depot will accept products from any manufacturer. Acceptable products include desktops, notebooks, keyboards, mice, printers, scanners, handhelds, digital cameras, fax machines, desktop copiers, flat-panel displays, monitors, TV sets (27 inches or smaller), TV/VCR combos, and cell phones.

"It has to be electronics," says Brian Levine, an Office Depot spokesperson. "We're not recycling toasters."

All of the more than 850 Office Depot stores across the country will accept the old gear, Levine says. "Trying to recycle electronics is a big issue for consumers," he says. "And we're interested in not just being a product provider, but a provider of solutions as well."

Growing Problem

The offer is a great deal in an era where at least five states (California, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Virginia) have passed laws banning CRTs from their landfills, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Monitors aren't the only problem. The National Recycling Coalition estimates that, of PCs in use in the United States between 1997 and 2007, nearly 500 million will become obsolete--and must be disposed of. And that's not even taking into account all the dead cell phones, fax machines, and printers that pile up in our home offices and small businesses. Not to mention the small TVs that were banned from the living room once the giant screens rolled in.

Office Depot is partnering with Hewlett-Packard on this recycling project. HP has two major recycling centers (one in Roseville, California, and one near Nashville) that are designed to provide environmentally sound ways to dispose of old electronics.

To find your closest Office Depot store, go to OfficeDepot.com, click on "Find a Store" at the bottom of the page, and type your zip code into the resulting store locator page.