Electronics recycling is a time-consuming and labor-intensive job. It is not like a traditional recycling facility that accepts steel, aluminum, other metals, cardboard, plastic, glass, and paper. Electronics are made up of many different materials, including plastic, leaded glass, metals and includes many tiny pieces are parts. To properly recycle electronics, items have to be completely dismantled and separated into specific categories. After dismantlement, some electronics have to be handled specially to deal with the hazardous wastes inside. (for example, leaded CRT tubes from TV’s or monitors) The process is usually lengthy & expensive.

People ask us frequently, “Isn’t all the gold in PC’s worth a lot of money?” The fact is, the amount of gold in a PC is very minimal. The process of completely breaking down a PC into it’s individual components more than negates the amount that the gold is worth. Also, to properly remove the gold from processors or memory sticks usually involves a lot of chemicals and special equipment.

Yellowstone E-Waste charges a fee of .30 cents per pound for most electronic equipment. Fees for CRT type monitors or TV’s may be slightly higher than .30 cents per pound, but will be determined on a case-by-case basis. We travel all around the state of Montana and northern Wyoming to pick up electronics for recycling. There are load minimums for us to come and pick-up your equipment. Within Billings, the minimum is 10 items, unless you have an especially large piece of equipment. Out-of-town load minimums are determined on a case-by-case basis. Please call us for more information.

Items we accept for free include cell phones, MP3 players, IPods, loose ink & toner cartridges, loose cords & cables, internal computer parts (motherboards, processors, memory, RAM, heat syncs, etc.), and any types of metals.