Dell starts up their free recycling program

Announced back in June, Dell's new free recycling program is now live, meaning you can recycle any Dell product at no cost to you, without any of those pesky requirements to buy a new Dell machine in the process. All you've gotta do is head on over to their site, print out your free shipping voucher, pack and ship your obsolete Dell product and then throw a little environmentally-friendly party for your environmentally-friendly bad self. We can't say even a program like this could get Apple off the Greenpeace naughty list, but it seems worth a shot -- Dell's just making y'all look bad.

[Via Slashdot]

[rkguy @ Oct 1st 2006 10:28PM]

Oh man. Hilarious.... this is so absurd I shouldn't post...I know but seriously I was busting up when I read this. It's like a schoolyard fight that ends with "oh yeah, (pause) well...well... your momma's fat" or something totally dumb! Haha LOL. Heck, even if he is gay, big deal.

[Matt @ Sep 30th 2006 9:26PM]

people will be sending in their week old dells when they go buy their macs!!

[Matt @ Sep 30th 2006 9:30PM]

ohh btw i dont see any crappy dells in that pic.. the ones in it are probably better that what dell will sell u!

[Matt @ Sep 30th 2006 9:42PM]

Not sure what you guys are talkin about. All the dells I've ever bought or worked on are on point. Never any troubles like I had with a mac in '03

[Vinni @ Sep 30th 2006 10:02PM]

Don't you know it's cool to hate Dell?

Yeah, down with Dell computers!

[Matt @ Sep 30th 2006 10:05PM]

couldnt have said it better my self! oh yeah the first two comments are mine idk who the third one is lol

[Tull @ Sep 30th 2006 10:04PM]

Well anyone that knows any economic principles knows that going green means more cash for the corporation. So by sending your computers in to Dell you are just becoming another cog in the machine! Other then that I really don't have a point...

[o rly @ Oct 1st 2006 4:01PM]

It seems that you're too dumb to notice that Vinni is being sarcastic and is mocking your stupidity.

[blackout @ Sep 30th 2006 10:06PM]

i like my woman like i like my computers.



dirty.

[Snake @ Sep 30th 2006 10:06PM]

Actually im pretty sure Apple has had a similar program for a while now. Anyways who cares what green peace thinks?

[rkguy @ Sep 30th 2006 10:08PM]

Kudos! This great pr is deserved

[DG @ Sep 30th 2006 10:43PM]

Thank you for posting something on point. Right...Dell deserves a pat on the back. Paying shipping for all of this isn't cheap and isn't something Dell has to do. Good for them

[syadasti @ Sep 30th 2006 11:31PM]

Apple think dirty, think profit...

Environmentally Unsound. Illegal labor practices (IN CHINA! Really have to try hard to break those laws!). Commonly defective first or even second generation products.

Good thing you paid that premium. Make sure you get the Applecouldntcareless protection plan, you'll need it!

[Glenn @ Oct 1st 2006 12:08AM]

Couldn't you just sell your old PC on eBay and inflate the shipping cost to make more dough?

[PsycloneD @ Oct 1st 2006 12:14AM]

I've seen this picture somewhere before...

[Matt @ Oct 1st 2006 12:27AM]

that pic was the same one for the apple recycle thing

http://www.engadget.com/2006/05/31/apple-gets-going-on-recycling-program/

[bruce bigenho @ Oct 1st 2006 12:24AM]

Recycling is a dubious term. I heard most "recycled" computers end up in China where they are picked over my hand by workers who are then exposed to toxins like mercury and lead. Please read

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A56653-2003Feb24?language=printer

[PsycloneD @ Oct 1st 2006 1:20AM]

Aha! That was it! :)

[snorkle256 @ Oct 1st 2006 12:45AM]

After working in the electronic recycling business for a year I've figured out something. It's a profit to get people to send you their precious metals to recycle. Get this. The client I work for doesn't pay a dime. We cover shipping and the recycling and then split the profits. It's green and gold baby!

[carbog @ Oct 1st 2006 2:07AM]

It's the attack of the CRT's (the picture)

[Thomas Robbins @ Oct 1st 2006 3:51AM]

Yo if im gonan send my old Dell PC back too them for free witch is cool.. They better give me a 20$ refund
because they new when they sold it too me it was gonna be obsoleet in 2 years anyway.. Its like a 5 cent deposit u put on ANY can of Soda OR Beer.. If they r gonna reuse the material witch they will because sillicon is pretty expensive now then it is worth the material we give back too... So give Us money for recycling almost as an incentive...

[Sam @ Oct 1st 2006 6:52AM]

The scam is obvious here. There is enough gold in your average desktop to make a few bucks per computer. Dell probably has an agreement with the shipping companies where they pay a flate rate per year (I'd imagine this is the case anyway) so the shipping really shouldn't cost them anything. To help the environment? Not Dell, no way, no how

[George T @ Oct 1st 2006 8:33AM]

Why is it a scam? You're welcome to extract the precious metals and other parts of value and make a profit yourself.

[Intrepid @ Oct 1st 2006 8:58AM]

"people will be sending in their week old dells when they go buy their macs!!"

Why does a comment about Dell or Apple always invoke the troublemaking die-hard fool (normally from the Apple side)?

@ George T
Yes. Metal is precious George - it's one of the two rare resources that are needed to make everything from PC's to Cars (oil is the other, used in many plastics). IF we run out - thats it. No more phones, TVs, consoles, microwaves or cars... Only a misinformed youth (or Dell-hater) would call this a scam. It appears Sam needs to further educate himself.

[Matt @ Oct 1st 2006 9:16AM]

cause people hate dells and love macs

[Intrepid @ Oct 1st 2006 9:25AM]

HAHAHA. Whilst I don't love Dell, I far from love Mac... in fact I'd almost say that the annoying Apples fans, Apples annoying adverts and Steve Jobs' manipulation of truths (or lies as I like to call them) make me hate Apple.
Thank the heavens for Vistas imminent release... Touch�.

[Daniel @ Oct 1st 2006 11:37AM]

1. You don't typically use "touch�" to acknowledge your own witticism. Bad form, Peter Pan.

2. Are you that much of a MS fan that you're seriously trying to use Vista as the "great shutter-up of the Mac masses"?

[Intrepid @ Oct 1st 2006 9:37PM]

You are kidding right? You couldn't see that I was making a joke about the Mac vs PC adverts.... Rouch�.
And "Mac Masses"? 3% of computers connected to the internet are Macs. Same percentage as Linux.

[Tito @ Oct 1st 2006 11:49AM]

You'd have to be an idiot not to applaud this initiative. Even if they are making a few bucks out of this, who cares. Instead of people throwing out their fried computers... And if they are making money, why aren't other companies doing this?

[abib @ Oct 1st 2006 2:22PM]

this is stupid. if they want people to recycle, they better make it free. why people want to do such a hassle thing, get that computers to recycle center AND PAY?

WHAT ARE THEY THINKING?

[znarfaggle @ Oct 1st 2006 2:56PM]

once upon a time i read a comment page somewhere that was composed entirely of intelligent remarks and not silly comebacks. sometimes i think that the only engadget readers that post here are children, either fanboys or fanboy-haters.

then there's me, the fanboy/fanboy-hater-hater. filthy hypocrite that i am ;)
really, posts calling other people stupid or idiots for what they believe in is just as stupid (there i go again...).
if you think someone is wrong, try to convince them otherwise. don't call them stupid.

[JeffIsHere @ Oct 1st 2006 3:16PM]

What is forgotten here is that the typical Mac is still in use 8 years after production. While the typical PC is retired after just 4 years. I may be off a year or two either way and don't have the time to look the study up again. The point however being that a true measure should be the life of the product. I'm typing this on a 1999 era PowerBook I keep to surf the web upstairs. It's running OS X Panther and I can't see any reason right now to get rid of it at any price.

[syadasti @ Oct 1st 2006 5:20PM]

Wow your sample size of one really proves your point, I'm sure we'll get really valid stats from that!

Past 6 months at my new sys admin job, 135 PCs (14 servers, avg server age = 5 year old)

WinNT4 to Win2003 OS

Number of PCs replaced in past 6 months: 0
OS Crashes = 0
Driver Crashes = 2 (both same issue, bad Intel IDE "accelerator" driver - hey macs use Intel now)
Application Crashes = Rare
Low memory problems occasionally but most PC have 128 MB.

Most common user hardware here: 3 dozen of SFF Dells we bought in 1999
Average PC age: 6 years old
Most Common CPU: PIII, 450-500 MHz (PIII is the base for the new Core CPU line used in modern Mactels BTW)
Most Common Memory Config: 128MB
Most Common OS: Win2K

We often buy refurbished to save money too. Man what a hassle, so many problems and they don't last like your SINGLE example mac does, NOT!

[Danza Invisible @ Oct 1st 2006 7:28PM]

Gosh, it was about time!!

[chris @ Oct 2nd 2006 1:36PM]

hey! it looks like my room, how'd they get in? Im calling the cops.