[StBernard] Best Buy Partners with EPA to Reduce Cost of Recycling Hurricane-Damaged Electronics in Ongoing Debris Cleanup

[Westley Annis]

 (New Orleans, La., May 8, 2006) Best Buy, a partner in EPA's "Plug-In to
eCycling" program, has removed 100,000 pounds of hurricane-damaged
electronics from an Orleans Parish collection site in an effort to ease the
burden on federal, state and local governments that are cleaning up
potentially hazardous household debris in Southern Louisiana.

EPA's Plug-In to eCycling program aims to increase the safe recycling of
used electronics or  "e-waste." Best Buy, which has worked with EPA since
the program's inception three years ago, paid for the removal and
environmentally-safe recycling of storm-damaged computers, monitors and
televisions that were being held in an e-waste staging area in Orleans
Parish, La. Under the Plug-In to eCycling program nationally, EPA and
partners have collected and recycled over 60 million pounds of old consumer
electronics throughout the country.

Best Buy picked up televisions and other storm-damaged electronics that were
collected from Orleans Parish streets by the Army Corps of Engineers. EPA
and the Army Corps of Engineers have coordinated on collection and recycling
of 13 million pounds of storm-related e-waste throughout Southern Louisiana
since September.

During the past month, Best Buy also delivered $5 million in computer
donations to schools damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in Greater
New Orleans and Mississippi and teamed up with the EPA to assist in the safe
recycling of storm-damaged electronics in both Louisiana and Mississippi.

These initiatives demonstrate how public-private partnerships can assist in
post-disaster recovery efforts, particularly in working with local
authorities to provide flexible solutions. More information about the
Plug-In program and its partners is available at: www.epa.gov/plugin.
For more information about Best Buy electronics recycling and community
relations efforts, visit www.BestBuy.com/CommunityRelations.


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