Recycle Old Gear at Best Buy

The old laptops, desktops, monitors, printers, and scanners are piling up in the back corner, but getting rid of them at the local recycling center usually costs money.

That's why it warms my heart that almost every day it seems another retailer is getting into the recycling business. This time around it's Buy More Best Buy that's offering to take your used electronics off your hands for free.

Best Buy's recycling service now operates nationwide and takes pretty much everything you can dish out, including PCs, small office equipment, and some televisions. There are a few restrictions, though. Best Buy won't take any hard drives, so you'll need to remove them from your computer before you show up at the service desk. They won't take TVs over 32 inches, either, and smaller televisions cost $10 -- but in exchange, you get a $10 Best Buy gift card.

Of course, there are many other ways to recycle. HP recently fired up a recycling program, and Rick wrote about a whole roundup of trader-in services as well. And if your gadgets still have some life in them, don't forget about the community-based Freecycle program to trade stuff you don't need for someone else's stuff.