Recycling Computers and Other Electronics

As part of a settlement with the MPCA and the EPA, Best Buy stores will take 3 items per household per day. Some items, like plasma TVs may require a minimal charge, but the majority of stuff is taken for free. When you first walk into the store, just tell one of the receipt checker people that you want to drop off electronic recyclables and they will point to where you can set it down.

You might find some of the information from the Duluth TV Recycling post relevant.

WLSSD still takes CPUs, laptops, printers, scanners, etc. for $2 each.

TimK is right about Best Buy; I'm not sure if there's a way to find out online what exactly can be brought there for free and what can't. Basically, the policy must be something like: If it's small like a phone they'll take it for free; if it's big like a computer monitor they charge something. Of course, that's also WLSSD's policy, so knowing the specifics would help the decision-making process.

Andye, LSC is holding a free "Recycle your eJunk" day from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. this Friday. It's taking place in LSC's lower lot, and it's part of LSC's Earth Week events. It's totally open to the public. 

Here's a is a link from LSC's Facebook page to a poster with more info.

I made the poster and work at the college, so if you have any questions about the event, I should be able to answer them.

Complete list of what Best Buy accepts in most stores

Thanks everyone! Great information!

I use this locally owned and run company:

John's Twin Ports Recycling

Second on John's Twin Ports, they've been to my house twice and taken nearly everything I had for free or nearly free. The fees for non-free stuff are extremely reasonable.

I actually saw the post and immediately thought of our LSC thing, but failing that I'd recommend John's 1,000 times over. They're local and like the others said, their fees - if they even charge you - are really reasonable.

FYI - I stopped at Best Buy today and they took three pieces as they state they will. Very easy and all free ... just in case anyone looks this up in the future. Thanks again to all who commented.

You can also post your bits as OFFERS on the Twin Ports Freecycle group. 

Often times there are several people there who are collecting parts and pieces to make full systems to give away or to sell cheap to make computers and such affordable to others, as well as people looking to replace or 'get by' with something until they can afford more. Others are students looking for practice pieces to troubleshoot, build or repair.

Be sure to state if the pieces work or not too. 
What doesn't go, you can always take to one of the recycling places.

In the four years since I bought my $86 printer, I've spent about $225 on ink cartridges. For some reason ink is an expensive commodity that must be stored in tiny plastic containers that need to be recycled.



I suppose it's time to finally bring them in, along with the wad of random power adapters I've somehow managed to accumulate.

There are organizations that take empty printer cartridges as a fund raiser. You may want to check around to see if anyone can benefit.

You can go up to the Village Square Mall and the Cartridge World guy will refill your cartridge(s) for way cheap and fast.

You can also list your chargers on Freecycle, or TwinPortsCoffeeShoppe for sale, or on craigs/ebay and make some dollaz.

People are often times looking for those, especially to have a back up/or cheap/free replacement depending on what device it's for.

Thanks. I will check out Cartridge World. 

Cartridge World was a good deal. Usually my size-21 ink cartridges run $14 to $16. A refill at Cartridge World is $10.99 -- and I don't have a sack of empty cartridges now.