Do you consider yourself an environmentally conscious person? Do you recycle your paper, aluminum, cardboard? That’s all well and good, but what about your electronic waste? Last week, Electronic Recyclers International (ERI) and KSEE-TV, Central Valley’s News Station and Fresno, California NBC affiliate organized a free electronic waste recycling program for residents of the Fresno area.

Participants of the “RecyclAthon” were invited to drop off their old electronics at the ERI headquarters: computer monitors, televisions, radios, and other electronics. The program beat expectations and the final tally estimated an astounding 198,000 pounds of waste were dropped off for recycling.

“Going Green” is certainly a very popular buzzword for many companies in the past few years. In an attempt to capitalize on that, many tech companies like Apple and Dell (and stores like Best Buy) have taken up recycling programs. In terms of the companies, however, it usually involves buying a product from them (and in Dell’s case, they’ll only take Dell branded items).

Toshiba is taking a different approach. Toshiba will accept any sort of electronics from cell phones to computer to video game systems, all without having to buy a single thing. Toshiba wants to recycle any sort of “e-waste” you might have regardless of where you buy electronics or what kind of electronics you buy. Toshiba will even pay you for recycling as a trade-in (which, admittedly Best Buy has offered before). For example, my two year old MacBook Pro would get me $325,, and a $25 Starbucks gift card. Not bad if I wanted to get rid of my computer.