recycling

How to get a new iPhone 4G for ‘free’

Recycle!The latest iPhone 4G is about to be launched any day (remember the brouhaha about the missing prototype?) and we’ll bet you’ll be slobbering over that one too. 😉 Sooo… how can you (potentially) get your mitts on that one. For free? Or with a nice discount?

Pretty simple actually – Recycle your old one for dollars. So you won’t get the new iPhone for free if it’s the $200 model, but if you get about $100 for your old model, then that’s not a discount to sniff at.

Some of the recycling sites that will pay you big bucks for your old iPhone (and lots of other electronics too) include BuyMyTronics, MyBoneYard and Gazelle.

BuyMyTronics.com pays you for your old Electronics

It’s always great to see more companies involved in recycling. In the past, we’ve featured electronics recycling sites like YouRenew, MyBoneYard and Gazelle (and even Costco/Gazelle) that pay you to take your old cell phones, computers, MP3 players, etc. off of your hands.

buymytronics.com logo

We’re pleased to tell you about another such site: BuyMyTronics.com (think of it as ‘buy-my-tronics’ or ‘buy-my-electronics’). BuyMyTronics.com touts their free shipping, will take electronics in any condition (excellent!), and get this: their facilities are 100% wind-powered.

How much you get for your electronics depends in large part on how much damage a gadget has. BuyMyTronics.com currently takes iPods, cell phones, game consoles, desktop computers, PDAs, eBook readers and more.

yourenew.com pays you to recycle your old electronics

YouRenew.com logoRecycling your old electronics is really becoming easier, as more services spring up to cash in on the growing industry. Yes, cashing in, because they make money from re-selling the parts and raw materials. But I don’t want to rain on their parade, because it’s a win-win for everyone. You can get some cash for your device and they get to run a profitable business.

Take YouRenew.com – they even pay for the shipping of your old gadget and then pay you depending on what it’s worth. For example, a 1st gen 4GB iPhone will get you $94. Nice. Naturally, the older it is, the faster the price goes down, but hey, you’re recycling and not tossing a bunch of hazardous materials into a landfill, and the price on that is much higher!

Another service that we covered previously is Gazelle.

Panasonic Announces Nationwide Consumer Electronics Recycling Program

Panasonic Corporation of North America recently joined the growing list of environmentally conscious corporate citizens who have launched electronics recycling programs.

The Panasonic program began on November 1, 2008, with more than 160 recycling drop-off locations in 10 states, and is slated to expand to all 50 states, with hundreds more sites, over the next three years. For a list of current states and sites see www.MRMrecycling.com.

Good on you Panasonic! Check out other recycling efforts and resources by searching our blog.

Samsung offering a recycling program in the US

Thank you Samsung for deciding to launch a recycling program in the 50 states. With the exception of appliances, you can drop off any Samsung consumer electronics at various drop-off points. Here is the Samsung Recycling Direct website.

If you’re looking for more recycling resources, just do a search on our site as we’ve covered numerous recycling resources over the years.

Best Buy to trial free electronics recycling program

In what I only hope is the tip of the iceberg, Best Buy is testing out a free recycling program at 117 of its 922 stores across 8 states and DC. This is great news. So far, many of the big electronics retailers do offer some form of e-cycling, but charge fees to handle most larger items, particularly computer monitors. Making e-cycling easier for consumers should only increase acceptance and uptake of recycling.

Kudos to Best Buy, and continued kudos to Best buy and other retailers that already have recycling programs.

EPA’s Recycling Resources

There really isn’t too much of this information available today and we’re going to do our best to spread the word that ecycling is absolutely necessary. The government agency, the EPA, has a good list of local programs, links and vendor resources listed conveniently on a page on their website.

Please don’t throw your electronic waste in the trash. Take 15 minutes this weekend and donate or recycle it.

You may also wish to take a look at the GCycle website which provides you with even more local resources.

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