While we recycle laser printer and photocopier cartridges, newspapers, and office paper, there are a lot of items that fall under the radar -- and usually into the trash.

Among those items that people often don't recycle are computers, diskettes, and video cassettes. Here's a chance to help give back. If your office isn't currently participating in a recycling program, contact your local waste collection service and toner and ribbon service providers for recycling information.

Fast Company has compiled the following directory of recycling organizations that handle items that aren't normally considered recyclable -- but are. If you think we should consider other resources for inclusion in this directory, send Heath Row a description of the service and contact information at heath@fastcompany.com

We appreciate your help.

Computers

The National Cristina Foundation http://www.cristina.org helps people and organizations connect with training and educational institutions to donate IBM PCs and compatibles, Apple/Macintosh computers, hard drives, monitors , peripherals, CD-ROM Drives, software/CD ROMS, network software and network cards, dot matrix and laser printers, modems, fax machines, and audio and visual equipment. The NCF and its grassroots partners provide computer technology and solutions to give people with disabilities, students at risk and the economically disadvantaged the opportunity, through training, to lead more independent and productive lives.

In Baltimore and Washington, D.C., the Lazarus Foundation -- http://www.lazarus.org -- accepts donations of outdated PCs from local businesses and people, refurbishes them, and donates them to area nonprofits. An interesting wrinkle on Lazarus? Baltimore-area high school and elderly students -- the foundation grew out of a program at Boston's Elderhostel Organization -- retool the computers and provide technical support for recipients. Soon the foundation hopes to expand its activities outside Baltimore.

Featured in the July 21, 1999, edition of City Pages, the University of Minnesota's Computer Repair Service accepts donations of "aging computer or other electronic gizmos," repairs what it can, and then sells the refurbished computers. For a list of equipment for sale, go to http://www.umn.edu/crs/usedequip.html -- if you live in Hennepin County, Minnesota, and would like to donate your old computers or other electronics, call 612-348-6500.

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy publishes the "Guide to Energy-Efficient Office Equipment," which includes information on the energy use of computers, monitors, printers, photocopiers, fax machines, and other office equipment. For more information or to order, check http://aceee.org/pubs/o2.htm

You can get quite creative when finding new uses for old computers. If you're unable to find a person or organization to donate your used computers to, consider other options for reuse. Vance Haemmerle, who works for the Lunar & Planetary Laboratory in Arizona, took an old VAX machine and converted it to a minibar. http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~vance/www/vaxbar.html shows how.

Share the Technology http://sharetechnology.org provides a national computer donation database which connects computer donors and recipients throughout the United States.

PEP's National Directory of Computer Recycling Programs http://microweb.com/pepsite/Recycle/recycle_index.html provides a detailed list of state, national, and international agencies that accept donations of used computer hardware for use by schools and community groups. Don't just throw away your outdated, obsolete, and replaced hardware, give it to an organization that can use it -- and might not be able to afford a newer computer.

Office Product Recycling

Printer Cartridges

Each year, American households and businesses consume and throw away more than 243 million inkjet printer cartridges. These cartridges contribute more than 200 million pounds of solid waste to our nation's landfills. The Educational Technology Conservation Exchange Program -- http://www.etcep.com/visitor.htm -- encourages learning institutions across the country to collect empty laser and inkjet printer cartridges from their community. Collected cartridges earn points, which are then exchanged for new computer technology. (Contributed by Dean Whitehead, dwhitehe@co.la.ca.us)

Affordableinkjet.com http://www.affordableinkjet.com buys used inkjet cartridges, remanufactures them, and returns them to the customer. The company pays from 50 cents to $3 depending on the cartridge. Affordableinkjet.com is an affiliate of Inkjetusa.com, a subsidiary of Denver-based Anzen Corp., one of the nation's largest wholesale remanufacturers of inkjet cartridges.

Diskettes

If you're feeling creative, you can make craft items and presents for colleagues, family, and friends out of your accumulated AOL and other online service and demo diskettes. Visit http://www.neosoft.com/nikki/ and learn how to make a nativity scene, a high-tech candle snufffer, an analog clock, and a gold diskette box out of unwanted and unused disks. Martha Stewart for the information age!

Floppies for Kiddies http://www.usacitylink.com/citylink/disks has received and donated more than 189,000 diskettes to needy schools and nonprofit organizations since 1996. The recycled disk project accepts only 3.5-inch diskettes at this time, but individuals and organizations can donate one, 10, or 100 diskettes. (contributed by Darrel Raynor, DARaynor@DataAnalysis.com)

GreenDisk http://www.greendisk.com is the manufacturer of GreenDisk High Quality Recycled Diskettes and is the world's leading software recycler. GreenDisk's Corporate Disposal Program addresses the issues of secure disposal of information assets, wasted storage costs, and the legal liability related to software licenses in a cost-effective, environmentally responsible manner. Personal computer users throw away approximately 4 million diskettes every day -- nearly 1 billion disks per year. Those disks go straight into landfills, in which they can take 450 years to degrade. GreenDisk collects outdated and unsold diskettes and recycles the packaging. The company then magnetically erases, reformats, and relabels them with a GreenDisk label printed on recycled paper for sale. If you have diskettes that are on their way to your company's dumpster, put them in an envelope and mail them to GreenDisk (Attn: CDIP), 5640 South Durango, Tacoma, WA 98409.

Office Furniture

Chase Office Environments http://www.chaseoffice.com/ buys large inventories of 1-6 year-old office furniture from Fortune 100 and 500 companies nationwide and resells it for 75-80% off the list prices of new office furniture. The company carries panel systems, chairs, filing cabinets, and desks from such office furniture manufacturers as Knoll, Steelcase, and Haworth. (submitted by Andrew Blake, ableke@chaseoffice.com)

Office Fixtures

USA Lamp & Ballast Recycling Inc. http://www.usalamp.com offers pickup services to recycle cathode ray tubes, fluorescent and high density discharge light bulbs, flyorescent ballasts, and batteries. The firm also offers lamp recycling kits so people and organizations can ship their used lamps and light bulbs if a pickup cannot be arranged.

Video Cassettes

Columbia, Missouri-based Alternative Community Training Inc., a not-for-profit corporation that provides at-home, on-the-job, and community support for people with disabilities. Since 1991, ACT has employed developmentally disabled adults to clean, erase, and repackage used video tapes. That work provides a secure and environmentally safe method of tape disposal for companies, as well as a new cost-effective resource for companies that purchase video tapes. But ACT does more than alleviate the waste created by large video duplication houses -- which crank out about 20 million video tapes a month -- it provides gainful employment to people with disabilities. To join organizations such as AlliedSignal, the Arts & Entertainment Network, Fox Sports South, HBO Inc., MTV Networks, Nickelodeon, and the Peace Corps in ACT's video cassette recycling efforts, call 800 359-4607.

Other Recycling

Want to get rid of your old design magazines and journals? The Design Exchange, a nonprofit design and innovation educational organization in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, wants to add your design magazines and books to its resource center. You'll get a tax receipt for the value of your donation, but you'll also be ensured that the material continues to be readily available to you and others in the design community. For more info or to visit the resource center, email Michael Choo at michael@dx.org or visit http://www.designexchange.org

Unicef accepts donations of foreign coins and paper currency -- about $72 million of which is wasted every year because they're too small to be converted. If you don't find a Change for the Good donation envelope in your seat-back pocket or on your meal tray (Unicef has teamed up with about 20 airlines to collect this unused money), you can mail your donations of foreign coins and paper currency to Unicef, 333 E. 38th St., New York, NY 10016. $2 in change can buy 25 oral rehydration packets or enough high-dose vitamin A to protect 28 toddlers from blindness for a year.

Pedals for Progress, which won a Bicycling Magazine's Environmental Award in 1998, works to "rescue bicycles destined for overburdened U.S. landfills and ship them to developing countries where they are sorely needed and highly valued. PfP bikes are put to work not only as basic transportation, but are used as a supplement to school and community programs. The bikes are adapted for use as trash haulers, produce trucks, taxis, and farm machinery." For more information on PfP, check out http://www.p4p.org/

Requests for Help

If you need help reducing, reusing, or recycling computers and office products in your workplace, email us at heath@fastcompany.com and we'll post your queries here. Other Fast Company readers might be able to help!

Employees of R.E.S.I. Andreoni & C. S.a.s. sagangem@tin.it say, "We are an Italian company and we ask some information about Italian and foreign firms that are already in the field of the recycling material recovered by appliances of all the kinds as: washers, TV, refrigerators, computers etc.Y´ To be able to start our activity, we have necessity to know firms prepared to acquire the recycle materials and selected, firms (preferably Italian) that already operate in this field."

Sharon Seim Sharon_Seim@fws.gov says, "I work for the Federal government. Every year multiple employees in each office receive ~10 volumes of the Code of Federal Regulations and the United States Code. These glue-bound paperback volumes are being thrown out in droves each year. We also have hundreds of computer software documentation volumes stashed on shelves and in warehouses--all outdated. Is there a way to recycle these books? Where I live, we cannot take them to the local recycling center. Perhaps there is a machine that can 'shred' the books so the paper can be recycled, or maybe there is a business somewhere that can de-bind and shred the books for recycling? Any help would be appreciated. It is an annual problem."

Lisa Y. Lefferts llefferts@earthlink.net says, "Do you know where I can recycle phones? I called the manufacturers of two old two-line phones I have (BellSouth and Lucent Technologies) that no longer work properly, and they were no help. It seems such a shame to thow them away."

William Frank Vouk III wvouk@gw.stcdio.org says, "Answering machines and joysticks -- Is there any way to recycle these objects? I hate to just throw them in the trash even though they are beyond repair. Any suggestions?"

Gahlord Dewald gahlord@marlboro.edu says, "I work in a design studio. As such we waste an absurd amount of stuff. We're very conscious and recycle all paper, etc. However, one thing seems to be a real problem: the fax toner cartridge on our Panasonic fax machine. I've tried calling them but no one seems to have any answers. Do you have any leads?"