Costco Partners with Gazelle to Deliver Recycling Program

July 10, 2009

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To drive responsible recycling of old electronic gadgets, warehouse store Costco has teamed up with Gazelle, an electronics trade-in company, to offer its customers a trade-in and recycling program. Powered by Gazelle.com, customers can trade-in old gadgets such as laptops, cell phones, LCD monitors, digital cameras, MP3 players, and gaming systems. In return, consumers get a Costco cash card within ten days that can be used at any Costco warehouse or at Costco.com.

Costco’s Trade-In and Recycle Program currently accepts both trade-in and recycling of electronic gadgets in more than 15 categories. For items that are not accepted through the program such as faxes, printers, and TVs, the Gazelle Web site provides information on where to find a local recycler.

Gazelle, based in Boston, Mass., will evaluate the trade-in items to confirm the value and then remove personal data from the old gadgets prior to issuing the Costco Cash Card. All items are wiped of personal data and reset to factory settings, according to Gazelle. As an added measure of security, for items with hard drives, the company uses Department of Defense approved software and performs all tasks in a controlled, secure environment.

The Trade-In & Recycle Program is available to all Costco members. Shipping boxes are provided by Gazelle and free shipping is offered on all transactions with a value of at least $1.

Recently, some electronics companies have begun to fight back against mandated electronics recycling laws in various states.

Yet some electronics companies, like Panasonic Corporation of North America are expanding their recycling programs. The firm has added 30 more drop-off sites in the Southeastern United States including Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. The expansion brings the current number of drop-off locations to 310 nationwide. Toshiba and Sharp are part of this program, too.

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