Best Buy Will Pick Up Your Tech Recycling, But It’s Not Cheap
The company’s Standalone Haul-Away service allows customers to schedule a pickup for a maximum of two large items and unlimited small items, like video game consoles, hair dryers, and most computer and audio accessories. While there are some things Best Buy won’t take (it will somehow accept a broom but not most musical instruments or countertop appliances), it’s suddenly made recycling old tech far more convenient than the DIY option, which can be a problem for those with small cars, a lot of stairs, or disabilities.
Of course, making your life easier comes at a steep price. Standalone Haul-Away costs $200, regardless of whether you have one or two large items to recycle or whether you plan on giving up any small tech. Best Buy also won’t help you disconnect, dismount, or disassemble the items you’re recycling, despite Geek Squad otherwise existing to do those very things. It won’t pick up from businesses or other organizations, either, having apparently been formulated for individual consumers only.
Standalone Haul-Away complements Best Buy’s existing recycling services, one of which hauls away your old tech for $30 only after you’ve purchased a replacement item. The other program incentivizes people to drop off up to three items a day at the company’s brick-and-mortar locations by offering gift cards for certain tech. Much like Apple’s refurbishing-slash-recycling program, people can estimate their items’ trade-in value online before making a trip to the store.
Once Best Buy receives old tech, it ships it off to one of its recycling partners: Regency Technologies or Electronic Recyclers International. These companies wipe any remaining data off applicable devices, then decide if the item should be repaired, repurposed, or recycled. Repurposable and recyclable items are shredded into materials that can later be used to build airplanes, fiber optic cables, or new electronics, among other things. Fixable items go through the repair process and are resold as refurbished goods, hence the trade-in incentive.
Best Buy claims its recycling programs have helped keep more than two billion pounds of electronics and appliances out of landfills since the start of its recycling programs in 2009.
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