Business Recycling

NextStep Recycling is the only volunteer-based nonprofit electronic recycler for residential, municipal and commercial accounts in Lane County. We serve all of Oregon. You can drop your electronic waste at our site without an appointment, or you can call us for a pickup. We operate 5 days a week, 10:00am to 5:00pm, Tuesday-Saturday, and offer prompt and courteous service. We can supply all sizes of containers for your office collection needs, from buckets for CD/floppy disk collection to large durable containers for monitors, computers, and other large electronic equipment. We can send our business waste auditor out to your site to assess your business needs.
Fees for service:

• Basic pickup - $65
• Labor charge for any time over one hour - $50/hr
• Mileage charge for anything outside Eugene/Springfield - $2/mile
• Plus any per item fees we may have

Rates for large pick-ups can be negotiated. Please call Enid Lefton at 686-2366, ext. 118, or email: enid@nextsteprecycling.org for more information or questions regarding items we accept.

To keep your costs down, here are some packing suggestions. When stacking material on a pallet, do not allow too much to overhang the pallet, as the pallets need to sit side-by-side in our truck. This way we'll be able transport a full 10 pallets at a time.
Packaging Tips

Please keep like items together.

• Monitors/Terminals: use a standard pallet with a sheet of cardboard. Place monitors face down, with 9 or 12 units per layer. Lay down another sheet of cardboard, and then stack another 9 or 12 unit's face down. Starting from the bottom up, tightly shrink-wrap the monitors onto the pallet. There should be either 3 or 4 layers, depending on the size of the units.
• PC's: stack neatly on a pallet with the front of the computer facing out. Stack to approximately 5' and shrink-wrap tightly.
• Printers: stack neatly on pallet and shrink-wrap tightly. If you have a large quantity of ink jets or laser printers, keep the lasers on one pallet and the ink jets on another. You pallet will be more stable if you pack ink jet printers in large cardboard boxes. Keyboards, mice, cables, wire, and misc.: use cardboard boxes. If quantity warrants, use a gaylord (4' x 4' tote) box on a standard pallet. Separate eyboards and mice from wire and cable. You can put cables in a gaylord and then put the boxes of smaller items on top of the cables in the gaylord.
• The most important thing to keep in mind is that the material should be secured tightly on a pallet. This ensures that the items remain stable during transport and are more likely to make it back to our shop intact for refurbishing.

We recommend the following packaging materials: pallets, stretch-wrap, cardboard and/or 4' x 4' Gaylord (tote) boxes.

What happens to the hard drives and personal data?

If your hard drive is smaller than 500 MB, it will be dismantled (rendered completely unusable) and sent as scrap to be melted down for metal recovery. If your hard drive is 500 MB or larger, it will be cleared according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Guidelines for Media Sanitation for had drive data clearing. This writes a completely random series of "0"s and "1"s to all disk sectors, overwriting your personal data. If you have data you need to save, please do so before you donate your computer.

What are the tax benefits for corporate donors?

The IRS code provides for a tax deduction for property donated to a charitable organization such as NextStep under applicable rules and regulations. For corporate donors, tax deductions are usually limited to the amount of the donor's tax basis in the property contributed. Confirm eligibility for the deductions with your own tax advisor. Warehousing and shipping costs are also tax deductible under applicable rules and regulations.

What are the special benefits to corporations for donations of inventory? Under IRS Section 170(e)(3), corporations that donate inventory (i.e. property sold in the normal course of business) to certain charitable organizations, such as NextStep, may receive an additional tax benefit. Section 170(e)(3) provides a deduction for corporate contributions of inventory as much as twice the donor's adjusted basis in the property. For this benefit to apply, inventory must be donated to a public charity (such as NextStep) that will use the property for the benefit of the ill, the needy or minor children. The charitable deduction for contributions of inventory (from a C corporation) will be the total of the donor's tax basis in the donated inventory plus one-half of the difference between the inventory tax basis and its fair market value. This is limited to 200% of the inventory tax basis plus any incidental costs (i.e., shipping, warehousing) associated with donating the inventory. If the fair market value of inventory is less than the donor's tax basis in the donated inventory then the charitable deduction should be equal to the fair market value. Consult your tax advisor for consideration of this option. (Tax information provided by The Cristina Foundation)