Heartland AEA Now Offering Pick Up of Computer Equipment For Recycling

School districts are buying more and more computers, which means that the need for computer recycling is rapidly growing. While there are many options available to districts, one to consider is free through Goodwill Industries of Central Iowa. Goodwill will accept the following:

●    Computers and computer parts (desktop and laptop)
●    CRT and LCD monitors and terminals
●    Printers and scanners
●    Keyboards, mice, speakers and other peripherals
●    Cords and cables
●    Ink and toner cartridges
●    Computer software, floppies and magnetic media
●    Computer batteries and battery backups
●    Hard drives, optical drives and floppy drives (external or internal)
●    Internal computer components (motherboards, power supplies, etc.)
●    All other computer-related electronics (networking equipment, web cameras, etc.)

This equipment can be dropped off at the Goodwill warehouse at 4900 NE 22nd Street in Des Moines or you can contact Dave Parr, Goodwill of Central Iowa Vice President for Operations, for more information about pickup options. He can be reached by phone at (515) 265-5323 or by email at davep@dmgoodwill.org.

(NOTE: The Goodwill office that covers central Iowa covers most, but not all, of the Heartland AEA area. For the Carroll and Guthrie Center areas, the same service is available via Goodwill’s Sioux City and Council Bluffs offices.)

If you have small numbers of computers to recycle, Heartland AEA will pick those computers up as part of our regular van service. We will use Goodwill to recycle this equipment, so the van drivers will use Goodwill’s above list of approved items when making a pickup. Place the items to be recycled in the same location that Heartland AEA picks up and drops off other materials. Print off and attach the Heartland AEA “Recycle Me” sheets to each of the items. (Tech Coordinators will be provided a pdf of the “Recycle Me” sheet.) The items will not be taken unless they have the official “Recycle Me” sheets attached to them.

Please place no more than 5 items out at a time. (Smaller components in one box would count as 1 item.) Please keep in mind that depending on what other districts have recycled, it may take a few van runs before we are able to collect those 5 items. Once those 5 items have been picked up, you can set out 5 more.

This is our first attempt at providing a service like this to our schools, so please have patience as we work to make it beneficial for schools. Remember that this is just for small amounts of equipment—we will NOT pick up large amounts of equipment at one time. If you have any questions about the process or would like more information, contact Dustin Gean, Operations Manager, at dgean@aea11.k12.ia.us.