Recycling Electronics During the Estate Sale Process

estate sale

Jan 2

The first thing we do as a team when preparing for an estate sale is sort.

We sort through the home, one room at a time. The goal is to separate the household items into several categories:

Sell
Donate
Recycle
Trash

Our main objective is to sort items that can be sold during the public sale. Pillows over here. Lamps over there. Kitchen utensils back here. You get my drift.

Without fail, we find ourselves with items that don’t belong in the “sell” pile. Items that may be broken or items that don’t sell well historically at estate sales.

We donate with intention where possible, but we also recycle where possible. Most notably electronics and cords.

You would be amazed at how much electronics are found within any given home. From cords with no mates, to nonworking iPhones, to computer towers, and everything in between.

According to TheRoundup.org, only 17% of e-waste is properly collected and reycled. Let me tell you, we don’t need more electronics going to the landfill.

Our favorite place to donate electronic waste during our sort phase, is to Goodwill Industries.

Yes! Goodwill! The same place you like to shop for clothes and shoes and housewares.

They have an amazing e-waste recycling program. What they cannot refurbish and resell, they recycle. Things like laptops and iPhones are collected at their warehouse, sorted (again!), tested, and scrubbed of personal data.

If the items work then they resell in the Goodwill GRID stores. If not, then it is recycled. Safe and secure!

You can read more about their program HERE. I’ve personally toured the warehouse and watched as they removed hard drives from computers only to have a large machine drill a hole through the middle of each one! It truly is amazing and we are grateful for their service.

If you have personal electronics that you want to dispose of but unsure where and how, then I encourage you to drop them off at your local Goodwill store!