The only difficulty in recycling electronic gear, their parts and dead batteries is a serious lack of drop-off points. When you have to travel across the county to take worthless e-waste and batteries to an authorized drop-off point few are going to do it.

I have been Recycling electronic parts for years along with many companies. Have you ever heard of a Solder Leveling Machine that removes excess solder and if the circuit boards have components on them you can desolder them also in one pass. They use either salt or high temperature oil and a conveyor system. The salt system was better an the printed circuit boards could be cleaned with water and the salt recycled also.

In Illinois we have groups based on Yahoo! Groups, called Freecycle.org. Each city of any size has one, or one nearby. The purpose is to keep items with life left in them, out of landfills. Each group is moderated by volunteers. It works like this: You have an item like a router or sofa or whatever. You post a message on a group bulletin board with a description and your location. Members of the group see your message post, and if someone is interested in that item, they email you and tell you when they can pick it up. You set it on your front porch or driveway, and they come by & get it. This works well, and people offer everything from computer systems to exercise equipment.

I would, if there were a recyle option nearby. Even a few towns over. But I can't find one.

Okay, I'm a dork, but I still have my old Performa 6400 because...well...I just don't know what to do with it, so I keep it around for testing and playing and every now and again just firing up After Dark to watch the flying toasters. It's odd, I would love to recycle a lot of my old tech, but I wind up stashing it for future use instead, even if that future use never really comes. I suppose I'd be more likely to recycle all that stuff I've got in boxes in storage if I actually had someplace nearby that handled electronics for recycling. It's a shame there isn't! Maybe local governments should get in on that and promote recycling programs at local recycling centers, or have a "electronic trash day" the same way a lot of places have "bulk trash days," although I'll tell you right now, I'd be first one out on the street looking for still-good gear on those days... I like Susanne's idea-Freecycling is a GREAT way to go-sometimes the most useless stuff to you is incredibly useful to someone else, and it helps you meet people as well, especially if you don't mind. I'm planning on freecycling a few of my old CRT monitors if I can actually get up the effort to do it and pull them...that's right...out of storage. :D

Not-too-old stuff can be donated to the Cristina Foundation. http://www.cristina.org/ And businesses can get a 100% tax writeoff for computers less than 2 years old.

I wholly endorse recycling, but its not as easy ass this article makes it sound. Not everyone lives in New York, and the Dell program only accepts Dell products. It may be hard to imagine, but there are other manufacturers besides Dell.

I recycle because it is easy. I take my electronic gear to the local Goodwill store (within 2 miles) and they do the rest. Reduce recycling to a no brainer and it will work. That's what California is doing at least in my local.

HELLO? Did you scrutinize the Dell web site before claiming that they will pick it up for free? There's nothing there that says that. In fact, if you click on 'recycle now' on the URL you mentioned, it actually just has a link on how to PACKAGE THE PRODUCT so that it can be mailed -- a link which didn't work when I tried it. And it's not clear whether the 'free' option is for any Dell product or only products that you buy from here on. Dell, in the murky, obfuscatory way that is so dear to business when it stands to lose money, shows that it really doesn't care all that much. It's just marketing, trying to look green while ultimately caring only about the bottom line. Things to consider before you claim how easy it is to recycle a Dell:
--Who has the appropriate packing material for a 20 lb. computer?
--Why hasn't Dell bothered to make the recycling option clear to potential buyers?
--Why would Dell not bother to make its links on the recycling page work?

For my part, cristina.org is a better option. If you have a computer too old for them to accept, there are local recyclers you can find. In the DC area, it's keepitgreen.org.

Of course, Congress should be doing something about this. But the lack of true democracy in our electoral system prevents anything useful from happening, most of the time. The National Association of Manufacturers lobbyists will make sure they will never be forced to incorporate recycling costs into product pricing...