Recycling trash through the mail

DALLAS — No one ever said saving the Earth was easy. Or cheap.

You can recycle electronics, CDs, DVDs and similar material in a Technotrash Can via mail. But it's worth a little work and money to get rid of that guilty feeling that comes with throwing away perfectly recyclable stuff.

All those CDs in your junk mail urging you to sign up for AOL's Internet service aren't going to just decompose in landfills.

So stop throwing them away. You do have another option.

For $30, GreenDisk will send you a cardboard box you can fold so that it resembles a tall trash can, complete with a slot at the top.

Drop your CDs — along with DVDs, jewel cases, diskettes, videotapes, audio cassettes, ink and toner cartridges, cellphones, handheld computers, pagers, digital cameras, laptop computers, handheld games, CD players, digital music players and rechargeable batteries — into the box.

When it's full, go to GreenDisk's Web site and schedule a U.S. Postal Service pickup. GreenDisk will e-mail you a packing slip. Seal your box for delivery, attach the slip and set it out for pickup. You're done.

From your home, your digital detritus will travel to a GreenDisk collection facility. From there, it goes to a network of companies and nonprofit groups that break down the materials for reuse.

A couple of weeks after you send in your materials, the company will send you a letter certifying that your media have been destroyed — a good thing if you need to document the disposal of sensitive business information.

Our test of the service, called Technotrash Can, revealed a few minor flaws.

The company's response time is slow, taking several hours to send receipts and packing slips.

In one case, an e-mail to customer service did not receive a reply for several days.

At 3 feet tall, 1 foot wide and 1 foot deep, the Technotrash Can is small enough to fit in tight office space. But it's just large enough to be a little heavy when full. Maybe AOL could send a forklift in its next junk-mail promotion.

Pros: Accepts all kinds of electronic media and devices.

Cons: Requires some patience in the customer-service department.

Bottom line: The best thing since blue recycling bins.

TomTom GO 910

TomTom

www.tomtom.com

$900

When you're lost, the TomTom GO 910 portable navigation system can help you find your way. When you're not, its MP3 player can entertain you and its Bluetooth technology can help you talk hands-free on a Bluetooth cell phone.

With its new text-to-speech technology, the device also can read aloud incoming traffic alerts and the names of streets and places. It has a 20-gigabyte hard drive, a 4-inch anti-glare touch screen and pre-installed maps of the United States, Canada and Europe.

The TomTom GO 910 costs $900. Another new model, the TomTom GO 510, costs $700 and includes maps of the United States and Canada, an MP3 player and a 1GB Secure Digital card.

— Deborah Porterfield

Gannett News Service