• treefrog@lemm.ee
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    7 months ago

    It’s free. I believe, Best Buy packages it all up and ships it to China. I believe Chinese companies pay for the waste, and then pay very poor people to pick through it for valuable (and toxic) metals. A lot of the metals etc. end up in the groundwater. In other words, it’s still mostly pollution, but dropping it off at Best Buy makes it someone else’s pollution…

    Not sure how to feel about all of it to be honest. I still recycle at Best Buy, but it’s kinda like recycling plastic in the municipal recycling, I know most of it ends up in the garbage, and thus as pollution, ultimately. But I still put it where it’s ‘supposed’ to go.

    • Carlo@lemmy.ca
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      7 months ago

      It looks like they’ll take certain items free, while others (like non-Best Buy branded televisions) you have to pay them to recycle. In California there’s no charge for store drop-off; I imagine because they have a dedicated e-waste recycling fee.

      • treefrog@lemm.ee
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        7 months ago

        Yeah, I can’t say I’ve ever tried recycling large items. But I’ve dropped boxes off at the stores here in the Midwest, and they’ve never hassled me over misc. electronic garbage. They used to have kiosks in the entryway. Or maybe still do at some stores.

        • Carlo@lemmy.ca
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          7 months ago

          Yeah, I only looked it up because I remembered being charged for dropping off a broken TV at a Texas location.