Home » Office Depot Initiates NEW Program for Recycled Electronics

Product supplier offers small businesses, consumers gift cards for old equipment

By Danielle Lee

Office Depot recently launched an electronics trade-in system that pays customers to recycle their old small to medium-size electronics.

The project is powered by services and product-support provider NEW Customer Service Cos. and is intended to both help the environment and people and businesses affected by the economic downturn, the company said.

In exchange for their trade-ins, customers receive an Office Depot gift card equivalent to the value of the item, of any brand, determined by the website www.officedepot.com/techtradein.

“In the wake of a tough economy, Office Depot is excited to help customers clean out their old technology, and provide them with a store credit in the process,” said Randy Wick, Vice President of Merchandising for Office Depot, in a statement. “This is also a great opportunity for small business customers to upgrade their outdated office equipment without breaking the bank.”

Customers and small-business employees can visit the website to submit information electronically about their trade-in and have its gift card value calculated. Once they enter their contact information, customers can print out a free shipping label for the item. Gift cards arrive by standard mail after the electronics are verified.

The company will either recondition or recycle the equipment through the program, which guarantees that the products will not be exported or placed in landfills.

“Some items may be sold into the secondary or used marketplace in whole machine form or disassembled and sold off as usable service parts,” the company stated.
Some recycled parts will be used by the NEW service repair network that supports 150 million customers nationally.

“We are excited to be partnering with Office Depot to give customers a great new way to trade-in old electronics,” said Tony Nader, President and CEO of NEW, in a statement. “Given the growing demand for green programs, along with a tough economy, this service delivers a strong win-win scenario for both retailers and their customers.”