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Best Buy Partners with EPA to Reduce Cost of Recycling Hurricane-Damaged Electronics in Ongoing Debris Cleanup

Release Date: 05/08/2006
Contact Information: Pat Reilly at 504-731-8680

(New Orleans, La., May 8, 2006) Best Buy, a partner in EPA's "Plug-In to eCycling" program, has removed 100,000 pounds of hurricane-damaged electronics from an Orleans Parish collection site in an effort to ease the burden on federal, state and local governments that are cleaning up potentially hazardous household debris in Southern Louisiana.

EPA's Plug-In to eCycling program aims to increase the safe recycling of used electronics or "e-waste." Best Buy, which has worked with EPA since the program's inception three years ago, paid for the removal and environmentally-safe recycling of storm-damaged computers, monitors and televisions that were being held in an e-waste staging area in Orleans Parish, La. Under the Plug-In to eCycling program nationally, EPA and partners have collected and recycled over 60 million pounds of old consumer electronics throughout the country.

Best Buy picked up televisions and other storm-damaged electronics that were collected from Orleans Parish streets by the Army Corps of Engineers. EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers have coordinated on collection and recycling of 13 million pounds of storm-related e-waste throughout Southern Louisiana since September.

During the past month, Best Buy also delivered $5 million in computer donations to schools damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in Greater New Orleans and Mississippi and teamed up with the EPA to assist in the safe recycling of storm-damaged electronics in both Louisiana and Mississippi.

These initiatives demonstrate how public-private partnerships can assist in post-disaster recovery efforts, particularly in working with local authorities to provide flexible solutions. More information about the Plug-In program and its partners is available at: www.epa.gov/plugin. For more information about Best Buy electronics recycling and community relations efforts, visit www.BestBuy.com/CommunityRelations.