Bay Area REBlog

Thanks to Stephen McInerney who posted this information to the Monta Loma neighborhood website and was delighted to have it posted on my blog also….useful information for us all to have – should allow us all to clean up our collective acts in 2009

PACKING MATERIALS
- The UPS Store at Showers Dr/San Antonio (beside Walmart and Target) are happy to accept the following used packing material:
- polystyrene peanuts/biscuits, as long as it’s clean
- the airbags out of Amazon shipped containers
- bubble wrap, as long as it’s clean, isn’t ripped and doesn’t have lot of tape
- WON’T accept anything dirty
- WON’T accept used mailers or cardboard shipping boxes

HOUSEHOLD ITEMS
- Salvation Army will take it (and they’ll collect from your house)
Goodwill WON’T take most household stuff. Check their website or call first to check.

ELECTRONICS (MUST BE WORKING)
- Goodwill accept WORKING electronics, but not non-working, as donations. If it’s non-working, it’s e-waste and they will accept it but no receipt.
Other places for dumping broken electronics: Freecycle or Green Citizen.

FREECYCLE ELECTRONICS (WORKING OR NEEDING REPAIR, BUT NOT TOTAL JUNK)
- post a mail to Freecycle’s mailing-list, and if anyone responds arrange a time for them to come collect.
http://www.freecycle.org/group/US/California/Mountain%20View
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MountainViewCAFreecyle/
- state clearly whether item is working, needs repair (give model number and specifics), or broken (for cannnibalizing spares) – must be a giveaway, you cannot ask for cash, swaps or services in exchange (that’s a TOS violation and will get you booted)

WORKING BUT OLDER COMPUTERS (e.g. Windows 98, XP boxes, old Macs)
StRUT, Students Recycling Used Technology (local branch is at Mission College)
Students Recycling Used Technology – StRUT is a program incorporated into schools where students take donated computers and computer components and upgrade them
for the use in schools. Students involved in StRUT evaluate, repair and refurbish donated computers and in turn donate those computers to local schools.
Students gain valuable skills and schools get free computers.
Not sure whether they’re 401(c)3 and can write charitable receipts.
Contact: Rendee Doré, dorerendee @ aol.com, (408) 748-0927
http://www.strut.org (Or headquarters)

ELECTRONIC JUNK (E-WASTE)
Just around the corner from Goodwill and UPS Store, multiplex even more recycling into your trip:
1) Green Citizen drop-off center is just 0.2 miles further
4500 El Camino Real (/San Antonio), Los Altos, CA 94022
http://www.greencitizen.com/drop_off.php
- charge a small 50c fee per dropoff for batteries.
So collect your and your neighbors’ batteries then make one big drop-off.
- list of what they’ll accept (monitors, computers, videos, DVDs, phones)
Some items are free, some have small fees
http://www.greencitizen.com/what_we_recycle.php
Green Citizen also do Hard Disk Destruction and Cell Phone Erasure for a fee (e.g. if you’re donating used cellphone to charities that take them)

2) Goodwill is a certified eWaste collector.
You can drop off your **residential** E-waste free of charge at any of their Donation Centers.”
My friend advises: “write broken on it in permanent magic marker so theywon’t sell it as working electronics.”

3) SMART STATION (E-WASTE)
http://www.ci.mtnview.ca.us/city_hall/public_works/garbage_and_recycling/smart_station.asp
-> http://sunnyvale.ca.gov/Departments/Public+Works/Solid+Waste+and+Recycling/SMaRT+Station/
- 301 Carl Road, Sunnyvale (near the corner of Caribbean & Borregas Ave.),
take Mathilda or Lawrence north of 237/101. Near Baylands Park.
- open seven days 8am-5pm excl holidays. Tel 408-752-8530.
- quietest time to go is weekdays, during work hours; avoid weekends if possible
- must bring ID and some bill to prove you live in MV/PA/SV
- accepts broken computer monitors, TVs, cellphones, consumer electronics, fluorescent tubes, batteries (household and vehicle), hypodermic needles,
thermometers and thermostats, and used motor oil, filters, and anti-freeze.
3a) (Note: Other household HAZARDOUS wastes may be properly disposed at the Santa Clara County Household Hazardous Waste Facility, by appointment only, next door to the SMaRT Station. Call 408-299-7300 for a Saturday appointment.)

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