Staples joins PC trade-in trend

Touting its concern for the environment, office supplies specialist Staples will be running a computer trade-in program on Sunday and Monday. Consumers who bring in an old PC will get $100 off the purchase price of a new computer with a Pentium 4 processor, or for those not in the market for a computer, $20 off any purchase totaling $100 or more. The old computers will meet one of several fates: Staples will donate them to the educational sector, recycle the parts, or see to it that the systems are properly disposed of. PC makers such as Dell Computer and Hewlett-Packard have been offering similar, year-round trade-in programs for a number of months. Electronics retailer Best Buy, meanwhile, has hosted drop-off events for people looking to get rid of old computers and appliances. In both cases, consumers had to pay a modest fee up to $35. --John Spooner, Special to ZDNet News