• treefrog@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    17
    ·
    9 months ago

    If you have Best Buys they have e-waste recycling available year round. It doesn’t really solve the problem though, it just ships it off to poorer countries.

      • treefrog@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        9 months ago

        It’s free. I believe, Best Buy packages it all up and ships it to China. I believe Chinese companies pay for the waste, and then pay very poor people to pick through it for valuable (and toxic) metals. A lot of the metals etc. end up in the groundwater. In other words, it’s still mostly pollution, but dropping it off at Best Buy makes it someone else’s pollution…

        Not sure how to feel about all of it to be honest. I still recycle at Best Buy, but it’s kinda like recycling plastic in the municipal recycling, I know most of it ends up in the garbage, and thus as pollution, ultimately. But I still put it where it’s ‘supposed’ to go.

        • Carlo@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          9 months ago

          It looks like they’ll take certain items free, while others (like non-Best Buy branded televisions) you have to pay them to recycle. In California there’s no charge for store drop-off; I imagine because they have a dedicated e-waste recycling fee.

          • treefrog@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            9 months ago

            Yeah, I can’t say I’ve ever tried recycling large items. But I’ve dropped boxes off at the stores here in the Midwest, and they’ve never hassled me over misc. electronic garbage. They used to have kiosks in the entryway. Or maybe still do at some stores.

            • Carlo@lemmy.ca
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              9 months ago

              Yeah, I only looked it up because I remembered being charged for dropping off a broken TV at a Texas location.