We collect several difficult to recycle items at Greenward. With the exception of a nominal fee for alkaline batteries, there is no cost to customers. We do ask however, that you only bring us small, personal quantities of these items for recycling, as there is a cost to us for most of these services. If you have a large amount of items to recycle, we can refer you to the appropriate service. Also, please do not leave items for recycling outside our door when the store is not open.

For Cambridge residents, the City's recycling center also collects an array of items for recycling. They also maintain a very helpful web page about where to recycle or properly dispose of just about anything.

Items we collect at Greenward:

• "Technotrash": This includes gadgets like cell phones, MP3 players, digital cameras; rechargeable batteries (no alkaline batteries); electronic media like CDs, DVDs, and cassettes; laptop computers; computer parts and cords; and printer cartridges. We use Greendisk for this service. You can see a more complete list of items we can accept here.
• Wine corks: Wine corks can be ground into smaller pieces and recycled into products like cork boards, cork flooring and underlayment, trivets, shoes, and more. Please, no plastic corks.
• Compact fluorescent bulbs: CFL bulbs use about 1/4 the electricity of the equivalent incandescent bulb and last years longer. They do contain a small amount of mercury vapor, however, and must be disposed of properly. Note that we can accept only compact fluorescent bulbs and not fluorescent tubes.
• Alkaline batteries: while alkaline batteries in the US no longer contain mercury and are considered safe to dispose of in the trash, the steel and zinc in the batteries can be reclaimed and reused. Since we are the only local outlet we know of for recycling alkaline batteries, we have to charge $0.10 per battery to cover the costs of the battery recycling bin. This service is provided by Batteryrecycling.com.