Sony Announces Free U.S. Recycling

The Sony Take Back Recycling program will launch in September, enabling U.S. consumers to get Sony-branded electronics recycled for free.

Electronics giant Sony is trying to turn over a greener leaf, announcing that it plans to launch the Sony Take Back Recycling Program in the United States beginning September 15. The program with launch with 75 drop-off locations around the United States, operated by WM Recycle America; Sony plans to expand the program to roughly 150 recycling points within a year, and hopes to have at least one drop-of in every U.S. state and a center within 20 miles of 95 percent of the U.S. population. Consumers will also be able to ship their products to a recycling center. There will be no fees for using the program, but it only applies to Sony-branded products.

“Providing the highest level of service and support doesn’t stop once a purchase is made,” said Stan Glasgow, Sony Electronics president and CEO, in a statement “We believe it is Sony’s responsibility to provide customers with end-of-life solutions for all the products we manufacture. Through the Take Back Recycling Program, our customers will know that their Sony products will be recycled in an environmentally responsible manner.”

The Sony Take Back Recycling Program is the first in the U.S. to involve a major electronics maker and a national waste management company, and might herald new forms of partnerships between manufacturers and recyclers as the issue of e-waste—discarded (and often toxic) electronic and computing products—becomes an ever-thornier issue. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found the U.S. produced between 1.9 and 2.2 million tons of e-waste in 2005; of that amount, 1.5 to 1.9 million tons wound up in landfills.

Electronics products typically contain significant amounts of metal, glass, plastic, and other materials which can be reclaimed and recycled. In addition, the recycling process also enables proper disposable of hazardous substances present in many products, ensuring they don’t enter the environment (and, potentially, ground water) or wind up being shipped overseas for disposal.

Sony’s Take Back Recycling Program site will offer a list of drop-off centers, along with information about shipping material for recycling.