{"id":72871,"date":"2025-08-10T18:22:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T18:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/72871\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T18:22:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T18:22:12","slug":"need-to-recycle-an-old-laptop-or-printer-heres-where-to-take-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/72871\/","title":{"rendered":"Need to Recycle an Old Laptop or Printer? Here’s Where to Take It"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you’ve got an old\u00a0laptop<\/a>\u00a0or printer gathering dust in a closet, you’re not alone. A recent CNET survey\u00a0found that<\/a>\u00a0nearly a third of US adults are still hanging onto outdated electronics because they don’t know what to do with them. And while tossing tech in the trash might seem like the easiest option, it’s illegal in many states and could land you a fine.<\/p>\n

The good news? Recycling<\/a> your old devices is easier than ever. Major retailers like Best Buy, Staples and Office Depot accept laptops,\u00a0desktops<\/a>,\u00a0printers<\/a>, and other electronics, often at no cost. Some stores will even give you store credit or discounts when you trade in eligible devices.<\/p>\n


\n This story is part of CNET Zero, a series that chronicles the impact of climate change and explores what’s being done about the problem.
\n <\/a> <\/p>\n

Clearing out your unused tech not only frees up space in your home, but also keeps harmful components out of landfills. So if you’ve been holding onto gear you haven’t used in years, now’s the time to let it go the right way.<\/p>\n

Here’s what you need to know about recycling<\/a>\u00a0your old tech. For more, learn how to recycle your\u00a0old phones<\/a>. <\/p>\n

What to do before recycling an old computer <\/p>\n

Wherever you choose to take or mail in your items to be recycled, you’ll want to protect\u00a0your data<\/a>\u00a0by removing it as best you can. One way to do this is to perform a factory reset on your computer. Our\u00a0guide walks<\/a>\u00a0you through the process. <\/p>\n

Where to recycle old computers and printers<\/p>\n

Some retail stores will accept computers and printers for recycling, but it’s not always a free service. Policies vary by company. <\/p>\n

Apple Store<\/p>\n

You can recycle your old Apple computers, monitors<\/a> and peripherals, such as printers, for free at an Apple store, but there’s a costly catch. According to the Apple Free Recycling\u00a0program<\/a>, you must also purchase a qualifying Apple\u00a0computer<\/a>\u00a0or monitor to receive this service. Need another option? A third-party company called Gazelle buys old\u00a0MacBooks<\/a> to recycle them. After accepting Gazelle’s offer, you print a prepaid label or request a prepaid box and ship the machine to them. <\/p>\n

Read more: Phone and Laptop Repair Goes Mainstream With Push From iFixit<\/a><\/p>\n

Best Buy stores<\/p>\n

Best Buy generally accepts up to three household items per household<\/a> per day to be recycled for free, including desktop computers and printers, as well as other items ranging from e-readers<\/a> to vacuum cleaners<\/a>. While three is the limit for most items, there’s a higher limit for laptops — Best Buy will take five of those per household per day. Note that rules for dropping off monitors vary by state, and it’s not always free to do so. Best Buy also offers a mail-in\u00a0recycling service<\/a> for select items, but that’s also not free. A small box that holds up to 6 pounds costs $23, while a large box (up to 15 pounds) costs $30. <\/p>\n

Office Depot stores<\/p>\n

Office Depot and OfficeMax merged in 2013. The retailers offer a tech trade-in program<\/a> both in-store and online where you may be able to get a store gift card in exchange for your old computers and printers. If the device has no trade-in value, the company will recycle it for free. Office Depot also sells its own tech recycling boxes that you can fill with electronics to be recycled and then drop off at the stores, but they aren’t free. The small boxes\u00a0cost $8.39<\/a> and hold up to 20 pounds, the medium ones\u00a0cost $18.29<\/a> and hold up to 40 pounds, and the large boxes\u00a0cost $28<\/a> and hold up to 60 pounds. <\/p>\n

Staples stores<\/p>\n

You can bring your old desktop computers, laptops, printers and more to the Staples checkout counter to be recycled for free, even if they weren’t purchased there. The retailer also has a free at-home battery recycling box which, according to a Staples rep, has led customers to recycle thousands of batteries per week, up from an earlier average of 50 per week. Here’s a list of\u00a0everything<\/a>\u00a0that can be recycled at Staples. <\/p>\n

Read more:\u00a0How to Factory Reset a MacBook, Windows Laptop or Chromebook<\/a><\/p>\n

Where to find an electronics recycling center<\/p>\n

If you don’t live near a major retailer or would rather take your computers and printers to a recycling center, you can locate places near you by using search tools provided by Earth911 and the Consumer Technology Association. <\/p>\n

Earth911 recycling center<\/p>\n

Use the recycling center\u00a0search function<\/a> on Earth911 to find recycling centers near your ZIP code that accept laptops, desktops and printers. Note that the results may also turn up places that accept mobile phones<\/a> and not computers or printers, so you may have to do a little filtering. <\/p>\n

Greener Gadgets recycling center<\/p>\n

Consult the Consumer Technology Association’s Greener Gadgets Recycle Locator<\/a> to find local recycling centers in your area that will take old items. The search function also allows you to filter the results to separately hunt for places that take computers versus printers. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you’ve got an old\u00a0laptop\u00a0or printer gathering dust in a closet, you’re not alone. A recent CNET survey\u00a0found…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72872,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[191,74],"class_list":{"0":"post-72871","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-computing","8":"tag-computing","9":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}