Post Office offers free disposal of electronics

Electronic trash is both dangerous for our nation's landfills and wasteful. Fortunately, help in recycling these goods is coming from an unlikely source; the U.S. Post Office. The quasi-government organization has announced it is testing a free mail-back program which will allow anyone to mail broken/used up small electronics and inkjet cartridges to a recycler, free of charge.

The beta phase of the program will begin in 10 areas of the country, with plans to take it countrywide if successful. Free envelopes, available at the post office, are supplied by Clover Technologies Group, who also pays the postage and receives the trash. To fulfill its 'zero to landfill' policy, the company will refurbish or recycle all the old phones, MP3 players, printers and other e-crap that has reached the end of its usefulness.

The announcement doesn't stipulate the parameters of 'small electronics', probably a mistake. I can already envision one of my neighbors stopping by the local post office lobby after closing to drop off a large-screen television, an envelope taped to its cracked screen. Nonetheless, this seems like an excellent use of the postal service.

- Thanks to Engadget