Staples Offers Free Electronics Recycling

While Earth Day will be commemorated on Sunday, Staples and Hewlett-Packard will help consumers go green every day with free electronic recycling.

Regardless of where the items were purchased, the Staples technology program, powered by HP, will accept discarded electronics for free in the following categories:

• Desktop PCs, laptops, Netbooks, tablet PCs, external hard drives and small servers
• All computer monitors
• Printers, desktop copiers, faxes and all-in-one devices
• Keyboards, modems/routers, mouse controllers, and PC speakers
• Shredders, streaming devices, phones, and Universal Power Supply (UPS battery backup)
• Mobile phones, GPS devices, MP3 players, digital camcorders and digital cameras

Staples Vice President of Environmental Affairs Mark Buckley said the corporation began the program to help increase the number of electronic products that are safely recycled.

"Staples is making it easy for consumers to responsibly recycle electronics for free every day at our stores. We are excited to work with HP on this initiative as part of our ongoing commitment to environmental sustainability," Buckley added.

As for HP, Gabi Zedimayer, the corporation's vice president of sustainability and social innovation, said the company has been recycling since 1987, and recently celebrated reaching its goal of 2-billion pounds of electronic products and HP supplies.

"Our collaboration with Staples will build upon this achievement and focus on increasing electronics recycling in all states," Zedimayer said.

To recycle old electronics, customers can drop off their items at the service desk of their local Staples store. Staples will utilize their logistics networks to collect these devices and consolidate them at their distribution centers where they will then be transported for processing.

Essex County Staples locations include:

• 91-93 Pompton Ave.
• Bloomfield, 135 Bloomfield Ave.
• , 506 W. Mount Pleasant Ave.
• West Orange, KMart Plaza, Eagle Rock and Mt. Pleasant Avenues