Recycling Programs Lead Earth Day Activities Among CE Retailers

Hhgregg is hosting its first recycling program, free in-store events running from April 19-21 as part of the chain’s first Earth Day promotion that includes a gift card giveaway along with electronics deals to consumers who sign an “hhgreen pledge” to help the environment. The hhgregg recycling event and card contest are sponsored by Samsung, according to the ad on the hhgregg Facebook page. Hhgregg is using e-Stewards and ISO9001-certified Universal Recycling Technologies as its sole recycler, Jeff Pearson, senior vice president of marketing, told us. This is an hhgregg event that Samsung is sponsoring, Samsung representatives told us. Hhgregg is organizing the local activities, and working direct with Samsung’s partner recycler, URT, Samsung said. URT is a certified e-Steward recycler, and is committed to responsible recycling practices according to the e-Stewards program and auditing, the company said.

During the three-day event, signs and salespeople will direct consumers to drop-off bins where they can unload end-of-life electronics for recycling, Pearson said. Cameras, camcorders, computers, TVs, phones and accessories are accepted for recycling, but appliances are not, he said. Most hhgregg stores are participating in the recycling promotion with the exception of Chicago area stores, which are having grand openings this week in Highland and Rockford, Ill., the company said. An hhgregg marketing email told customers to call local stores regarding their participation in the recycling event.

For the gift card promotion, hhgregg customers have to choose an option for their green pledge before entering a drawing for three gift cards valued at $100, $250 and $500, Pearson said. Consumers can enter the promotion in store or by “liking” the promotion page on Facebook. Pledges -- some of which aren’t related to electronics -- include turning off electronics, lights and appliances when not in use; turning off water when brushing teeth or shaving; upgrading to more energy efficient appliances; recycling old electronics and appliances; unplugging appliances when not in use; and replacing regular bulbs with fluorescents. The pledge referred to energy-efficient fluorescent bulbs but not to more advanced green lighting options such as LED bulbs. Other pledges covered food waste, household trash and plastic bags.

Earth Day specials at hhgregg run through April 25 and include 10-20 percent off major appliances, plus an additional 5 percent discount off major appliance purchases over $499 when using an hhgregg credit card, the company said. CE deals include a 51-inch Samsung plasma TV marked down to $599.99 from $649.99 and a 14.2-megapixel Nikon digital SLR snipped $225 to $749.

Sears Holdings is unleashing a marketing campaign Sunday in four markets for a pilot small electronics recycling program that has been quietly operating in 100 Kmart stores since last June and another 90 stores since the beginning of April, a company spokeswoman told us. The company selected Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Miami as a representative mixture of “small and large DMAs so we can get a good reading” from the marketing program, she said. Customers can take small electronics -- “everything but TVs,” another spokeswoman said -- to service kiosks in participating Kmart stores where an associate looks up the value of the product and issues a Kmart gift card for that value. The program is available nationally online through Clover Innovative Environmental Solutions’ CEBuyBack.com website. The parent company is researching whether the program will also roll out to Sears stores but there are currently no plans to do so, the spokeswoman said.

If products have no value, customers can leave it at the store for “responsible” recycling through third-party partner Clover, a Sears spokeswoman said. She couldn’t comment on Clover’s process other than to say, “They had the best proposal.” The marketing campaign for the recycling program will be done through Kmart circulars in the four markets, in Sunday newspaper print ads and through geo-targeted banner ads on Sears and Kmart websites, she said.

Target established a limited-time website up through April 28 -- www.target.com/earthday -- with coupons and tips for a “sustainable lifestyle” as well as links to Target’s RecycleBank page. Games created for Target will reward guests who use the website to explore Target’s tips for living a more sustainable lifestyle and log their activities, a spokeswoman told us. Points can be accumulated and used toward prizes, including products and gift cards, she said. There are no in-store events around Earth Day at Target, but the retailer has its regular four recycling stations per store, one of which is for small electronics such as iPods, cellphones and ink cartridges, she said. Those electronics are “backhauled” to distribution centers, and Target “works closely with vendors with stringent standards” to determine where the products “can and cannot go,” she told us. Goal number one is to reuse or refurbish materials where possible and not to need to send them to scrap companies “to dispose of them responsibly,” she said.

LG held an event in Times Square Thursday around its “The Great American Cleanup” program that runs through May 31. Wayne Park, CEO of LG Electronics USA, said the company collected more than 13 million pounds of electronics for recycling through alliances with Keep America Beautiful and Waste Management in 2011 and plans to top the figure this year. Roughly 1,200 Keep America Beautiful affiliates and participating organizations nationwide hope to recruit and activate 4 million volunteers to “green their neighborhoods,” during a “National Day of Action” on Saturday, April 28, with activities taking place in nearly all 50 states, LG said. Last year 3.8 million volunteers in 16,500 communities collected 177 million pounds of litter and debris, including 7.9 million pounds of electronics, the company said.

Meanwhile, in a Best Buy promotion that runs through Monday, Apartment Therapy and Geek Squad are giving consumers the chance “to go green and save some green with Geek Squad’s Spring Cleaning House Call Giveaway!” said the retailer, which runs an ongoing electronics takeback program. Winners in the promotion will get visits from a Geek Squad agent, who'll “come to your home to explain how to clean your technology inside and out to make your gear run like new,” Best Buy said. The agent also will do a “technology trade-in assessment to see if trading in your old technology could save you money on a future purchase or if you should bring your gear to a Best Buy store for proper eWaste recycling,” the retailer said.