Giving Those Old Gadgets a Proper Green Burial

Electronics to be recycled at Gazelle.com. The Boston-based company also buys, refurbishes and resells older electronic devices.

By MICKEY MEECE
NYT

This weekend, Josh Mohrer and Petra Cramer are moving to an apartment on Upper West Side of Manhattan, free of the discarded gadgets that have been collecting dust in their East Village closet: a PalmPilot, a first-generation iPhone, an iPod, a BlackBerry and a Texas Instruments graphing calculator.

Moving is the perfect time to sell or give away the used electronics on Craigslist, Mr. Mohrer said, adding, “We want to own less in general, and antique tech stuff is a good place to start.”

Many Americans have outdated technology in their homes, especially after the holidays when the average consumer planned to spend a record $232 on electronics gifts, according to the Consumer Electronics Association.

The average household now has 25 devices, the group says. And a November report, “Tackling High-Tech Trash,” from Demos, a public policy organization focused on economic fairness and sustainability, cited government data showing that Americans owned three billion electronic products, with a turnover rate of about 400 million units each year.

(Original here. LP note: Best Buy also recycles old and used electronic equipment free of charge. I have brought in printers, cables, circuit boards, even some appliances, and Best Buy has taken them without question. Other recyclers and outlets for used computer equipment include PCs for People, flipswap, myboneyard, and TechForward, among many more.)