A Painless Way to Recycle Electronics

I feel like I'm constantly railing on people to recycle old electronics, but I also can't blame them when they complain that the don't know how to do it or where to drop off their old gear. Well now you're out of excuses.

GreenDisk is a neat little service that sounds perfect for busy businesses and homes that use a lot of tech gear. Sign up and the company provides you with a 1-by-1-by-3-foot box called a Technotrash Can. Fill it with optical disks, tapes, phones, pagers, calculators, and any other tech trash. When it's full, you apply a prepaid mailing label and the post office whisks it away to recyclesville. GreenDisk also takes computers, but you have to provide your own box for that.

One can is just $29.95. Larger items that don't fit in the box cost a bit extra. You can find the company's price list here.

GreenDisk vows that it erases hard drives to military spec and removes ID chips from cell phones to preserve privacy and security, but as always I recommend you do everything you can to wipe your data before you send it in.

Got more recycling tips? Let me (and everyone else) know in the comments!

P.S. To all the naysayers who think this is a rip-off, you pay for it because you don't have to do any legwork to get the material recycled: The post office picks up the box from you. Yes, you can drive it all down to your local recycler (when they're open) and do it for free (and more power to you), but some may prefer the convenience of having it picked up from your place of business. Also note that we're not just talking about phones but CDs, calculators, and any other old tech junk. For those who suggest smashing a phone with a sledgehammer, that's a great way to introduce toxic heavy metals to your home and neighborhood. If you came here looking for information on wiping your cell phone memory before reselling or recycling it, click this link!