Every October 14, International E-Waste Day asks people to do one simple thing: stop letting old electronics pile up. This year's theme is Fast Tech, which focuses on the small, inexpensive gadgets that slip into everyday life and out the door just as quickly. Cheap chargers, LED strips, fitness trackers, a pair of earbuds. They add up. (We dug into the problem in more depth in Fast Tech: The Growing E-Waste Problem No One's Talking About.)
The numbers show why this matters. The world generated a record 62 million tonnes of e-waste in 2022, and only 22.3% of it was documented as properly collected and recycled. E-waste is growing about five times faster than recycling, and a lot of the gap starts at home, in a drawer, a closet, or a box in the garage.
The good news is that recycling electronics in New York is easier than most people think. Here's where to take your devices, what we can accept, and a few habits that make sure your old tech actually gets recycled.
We partner with more than 150 drop-off sites across the state, and recycling at all of them is free. Enter your ZIP code at sunnking.com/dropoff to find the closest one.
The sites are a mix of places you probably already drive past: Goodwill stores, county and town transfer stations and recycling centers, and local computer shops. Because they're run by different organizations, hours vary a lot. Some are open every day, some only on certain Saturdays, some seasonally, and a few by appointment. Click on your location for its details, and always call ahead if you're unsure. If it's a Goodwill, make sure to clarify to the attendant that it is for Sunnking Recycling and not a donation.
One update: the residential drop-off at our Brockport facility is closed. Please use the locator to find an open site.
Our community events bring recycling to your town. You register online, pull up, and stay in your vehicle while our team unloads everything for you. Registration is required and closes three days before each event.
Coming up:
See the full schedule and register at sunnking.com/events.
If your office is clearing out old equipment, we handle pickup, secure data destruction, and documentation. Start at sunnking.com/enterprise.
Showing up with something we can't take is a frustrating trip. Our acceptable materials list is the quickest way to avoid it, and it gets updated, so check it each time instead of relying on what you remember from last year.
What we typically accept:
What we can't take:
One note on CRT TVs and monitors: we do accept them, but they need to be intact with the plastic back in place.
The full list is at sunnking.com/acceptable-materials-list.
Knowing where to go is half of it. The other half is actually going. These habits help.
1. Start an e-waste box. Pick one box or bin and put it somewhere you'll see it, like a closet shelf or the garage. Every dead phone, tangled cable, and broken gadget goes in as soon as you replace it. Once there's a designated spot, nothing ends up scattered across three junk drawers.
2. Pick a monthly drop-off day. Choose a day, like the first Saturday of the month, and put it on your calendar. Combine it with an errand you're already running. If a Goodwill or transfer station near you is on your usual route, the whole trip takes ten minutes. Once a month is frequent enough that the box never overflows.
3. Don't wait for it to be "worth" recycling. Broken, cracked, and dead devices are fine. They don't need to work for us to take them, so there's no reason to hold on to a phone that won't turn on.
4. Check the list first. Two minutes on the acceptable materials list saves a wasted trip. Keep refrigerators, loose AA batteries, smoke detectors, and anything swollen or damaged out of your box.
5. Keep batteries separate. Store any batteries away from the rest of the pile. If one is swollen, leaking, or damaged, don't bring it to a drop-off. Contact your county's household hazardous waste program for the right way to handle it.
6. Back up your data and sign out. Before a device goes in the box, save your photos and files, sign out of your accounts, and reset it if you can. We destroy the data on every device we process, but it's a good habit to clear it yourself first. Take out SIM cards and memory cards you want to keep.
7. If it still works, give it another life first. A working phone, tablet, or laptop may be worth money. Sell Your Tech lets you sell devices you no longer use. You can also pick up refurbished electronics at sunnking.com/buy-refurbished, which keeps one more device in use.
Everything we collect goes through our R2v3 and RIOS certified process. Your personal information is destroyed. Devices that can be refurbished are tested and reused, and the rest is broken down so metals, plastics, and other materials can go back into manufacturing instead of a landfill.
International E-Waste Day is a good excuse to finally deal with the pile. Find your closest drop-off site, register for an upcoming event, or start your e-waste box today.
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