iRecycling: Easier Than You Think!

It happens every year. School ends, your lease runs its course and its time to pack up all your sh*t and move out. In doing so, you discover things you haven’t seen since the day you moved in: that old camera (filed with embarrassing photos from that frat party during welcome week), the cell phone you dropped in the toilet and all those empty printer cartridges from finals first semester.

You consider selling everything on Craigslist… or you could just toss that crap in a hefty bag and leave it for the management company to tow away to the nearest landfill. You’d choose number two, didn’t you? Well, Al Gore would be quite upset with you, Captain Contaminator.

According to Greenpeace, 50 million tons of e-waste is thrown into landfills every year. And that number is growing fast. Not only is this a lot of extra trash in the dumps, but computers, cell phones, and other electronics leak and contaminate ground water supplies.

The Problem: People don’t know what else to do with their out-dated cell phones and broken laptops.

The Solution: The U.S. Postal Service has started a free electronics recycling program! No need to find a recycling center or pay for the service. All you have to do is go to the post office, pick up one of their pre-paid “Mail Back” envelopes, and send your old and unusable electronics to be resold, refurbished or recycled. The service is only available in 10 U.S. cities, but if it is a success we will be seeing this countrywide in the near future.

For more information on this revolutionary new program, visit your neighborhood post office. Beg, plead and pester (or picket outside!) them to take part. Do your part to keep our planet clean and our water (and sushi) free of contaminates.