November 19, 2007

Goodwill Silicon Valley's E-Waste Ignorance

You'd expect the people supporting California's E-Waste initiative would make it as easy as possible to get rid of your old, broken electronics so they don't go into landfills and pollute our environment or make people sick. But I had quite a hard time trying to get rid of some broken cameras, an old vacuum, electric phone, etc. Goodwill, and in particular my local branch, Goodwill of Silicon Valley participate in the program. However, it doesn't seem like anyone at the store is aware of this, even though the donation receipts you get mention E-Waste right on them.

I couldn't get any of the employees to accept my broken electronics. I had to call the number on the back of the receipt, and get the person there (thankfully someone is there to answer calls on the weekend) to call the store manager, who then had to call the store and tell the employees to take my broken electronics. Quite a hassle, and I had to stand there for a while waiting for everyone to get their ducks in a row. But at least I was finally able to unload all those broken electronics safely and properly.

Posted by josuah at November 19, 2007 12:51 AM UTC+00:00