Most people feel this way. However, if you or your company has a lot of material that needs disposing of, there are costs to consider that might make you think twice about handling it yourself. Trucking costs, packing materials, labor, insurance, as well as potential liabilities due to improper handling, can all add up to much more time, money and trouble than you or your company might want to deal with.

The Surplus Exchange ensures that your e-waste does not reach the landfills, your data is kept secure until destruction, and your machine is not exported to other countries where just the valuable bits can be harvested and the machines dumped or worse.

All other electronics please ask to see if we are taking them for recycling!

Prices for School Districts are reduced, please call for information.

We don’t like charging fees. Our first option is always to place your retired electronics into one of our reuse programs. When an item is end-of-life we make sure it is recycled properly. No electronics leave our facility for a landfill. Everything that can't be reused is deconstructed and recycled in an environmentally safe manner.

Think our prices are high? Many for-profit companies charge as much as $30 per item to recycle regardless of condition. The maximum charge for recycling your computer system ( monitor, computer, keyboard, mouse, speakers and cables) is $12, and if it can enter our reuse program there is no charge!

The Electronics Recycling Center at The Surplus Exchange provides the community with an environmentally responsible method for the disposal of old, unwanted electronics. Every two weeks we send 40,000 pounds of end-of-life electronics to be reclaimed.

Our trucks and uniformed employeess will come to your business, or you can visit us at 518 Santa Fe, Kansas City MO. We will assist you with all of your electronic recycling needs.

If security is an issue, we do offer additional services to safeguard you and your clients. We can clean your hard drives to Department of Defense standards. We will track your items through the recycling process and can tell you when and where your items were recycled.

Products that are not end-of-life are put into reuse programs. Your old electronics could find new life helping a nonprofit organization, a new business, a low income student, church or school. All items are tested, and we do respect and protect your privacy on any item entering into reuse programs. This means that your data is erased from the hard drive and property tags are remaved from systems. Items that do enter reuse can be considered gift-in-kind donations and are tax deductible.

There maybe fees for some items. Monitors that are end of life, or do not pass our performance test are recycled for a $12 fee. Printers, copiers, fax machines also incur small fees. For more information on fees, click on the link above. To schedule a pick-up, click above.

We hear this question many times. While your monitor may “work” at your home or office, it may not pass our diagnostics test and qualify for our reuse programs. We test your monitor for brightness, contrast, and screen quality. We also look at the case for cracks, or other flaws that might not allow your monitor to go to reuse programs. Things like stickers, or ink marking reduce the likelihood that your monitor will find a new home. Monitors that are badly discolored due to use in a smoke-filled environment or from direct sunlight will be recycled. Missing bases, and cut cords will also send a monitor to recycling, resulting in a fee.

ALL monitors over a certain age are considered to be at their end of life and are recycled.

Remember, our first duty is to our environment. We are not doing our job if we allow monitors to leave this facility for reuse programs and they fail within a few months.

We are not making a profit on recycling fees. The fees we charge cover shipping to the reclaiming center and the charge to destroy them.

The key to e-waste recycling is economics. The first choice for the handling of e-waste, and the most economically viable alternative, is reuse of complete systems or individual components removed from the computer systems. Unfortunately, this alternative is not sufficient to accommodate the entire quantity of e-waste generated.

For those items which cannot be reused, the other alternative is to recycle e-waste. Recycling will pay for itself if the value of the commodities that can be harvested from the computer is greater than the cost associated with the labor and facilities necessary to safely separate the materials into recoverable assets.

There are several variables that work against a vibrant domestic e-waste recycling industry. The first is the availability of “glass to glass” recycling. As domestic manufacturers have moved operations overseas or discontinued the manufacture of CRT glass, the demand for leaded glass within the US has dropped. When EPA proposed its CRT rule in June of 2002, the Agency determined that the value of leaded glass waste was $170 a ton. By January 2004, the value was minus $200. This economic reality created a situation where leaded glass was cheaper to dispose than to recycle.

Another factor is the cost of the recycling activity. It is difficult for e-waste recyclers located in the United States to compete with other low cost foreign recyclers. Because the recycling of e-waste is so labor intensive, the low wages and lack of benefits paid in some foreign countries provide these recyclers with disproportionately lower processing cost. Processing costs are not just limited to labor costs but also include the costs associated with environmental compliance and providing for worker safety. Many of these recyclers are located in countries that do not have the same level of standards that exist within the United States. The Basel Action Network report on China highlights the problems that exist. To address the labor costs, a few states have turned to prison labor; however this has been controversial due to questions concerning worker protection and other health and safety standards.

At the State Hazardous Waste Conference in 2002, many state regulators described the recycling industry as a “low-profit, risky business” with high turnover rates and inadequate insurance. The state regulators cited cases where low cost recyclers were merely sham operations that collected wastes fees, with no intention of doing any recycling. Many of these facilities have since gone out of business leaving contaminated sites for state agencies to clean up. One example occurred in Phelps County, Missouri. According to media reports, The Missouri Department of Revenue found 15,000 abandoned computer monitors. The DNR found someone was running a "computer recycling" business out of a rented building on the property. The owner of the business reportedly told customers he would take the monitors and dispose of them properly. Instead, state investigators say the man took the monitors, the cash and left. Hot sun melted the plastic coverings and rain can cause the lead to run-off into the soil and groundwater. It cost Missouri taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars to clean up the mess.