From John Murphy - K4SFD

You might want to follow up on this for all the old computers etc that you have stored.

Wondering what to do with that stash of old electronic equipment gathering dust and eating up valuable storage space?

You can turn that junk into cash — and reduce the environmental impact of electronics disposal — with a new program being offered by Sam’s Club warehouse stores.

The catch? You or someone in your firm needs to be a Sam’s Club “member.” But that’s not hard — last we heard, nobody’s been blackballed by the Sam’s Club membership committee.

Once you’ve joined, you can take advantage of the club’s new online recycling program for electronics that will pay for some of the items you want to discard.

Under the program run by Sterling, Va.-based NEW Customer Service Companies Inc., Sam’s Club will help its members dispose of older small- to medium-size electronics.

Sam’s Club, a division of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. , won’t collect the items at its stores. But members can ship items free of charge to recycling centers.

For items determined to still have value, you’ll get Sam’s Club gift cards that you can hand out to employees as rewards for a job well done or on a hiring anniversary. Even if the Club declines to “purchase” your items, the program will provide prepaid shipping and will recycle them.

The program guarantees that the electronics won’t end up in landfills and won’t be exported. The items may be reconditioned and sold or disassembled so parts can be sold or turned into raw material to produce new items.

Their approach will give your business an easy, economical way to polish it’s “green” image while providing some payback for technology that you might otherwise have a tough time discarding or recycling. It could also be used by your company to help employees get rid of their old electronics as well

Members who want to recycle items can go to the program Web site to fill out a form and enter contact information. The system will generate a label for free shipping.

Items accepted under the program include desktop and laptop computers, game systems, LCD monitors, printers, camcorders, digital cameras and MP3 players.

So are the Sam’s Club folks just in it for the good of the environment or their members? Hardly. The parts they collect may be used by NEW, the company’s service repair network, which supports their extended service and buyer protection plans.