2023 ABC13 Earth Day E-Cycle Drive

HOUSTON, Texas -- Houstonians showed up in droves to help make an environmental impact at the 16th annual ABC13 Earth Day E-Cycle Drive.

A steady line of vehicles flowed through CompuCycle's Spring Branch headquarters on April 21, with some people waiting all afternoon just to get into our live drive event.

Residents were invited to help make Houston a better place to live by bringing in old computers, monitors, printers, cell phones and other electronics for recycling.

CompuCycle said it is still counting nearly a week after the event, but so far, 82,956 lbs. of e-waste has been tallied. That's about the weight of eight school buses.

Those that were unable to attend our event are still welcome to drop off unwanted electronics to CompuCycle, on any Friday, free of charge!

"I love recycling," resident Yada Holton said. "I wanted to recycle a computer and printer the correct way, instead of throwing it in the trash."

"A lot of people don't understand how important it is to recycle your electronics, so that they don't get in landfills, they don't harm our soil, our air, our water," said Cristin Andrews, an IT delivery manager for Shell.

Shell was a founding sponsor of the drive back in 2008. Friday, we saw dozens of Shell employees giving their time to help unload vehicles.

Back in 2014, ABC13's E-Cycle Drive set a Guinness Book world record for "most consumer electronics recycled in an 8-hour period at one venue." More than 128,000 lbs. of electronics were collected that year.

We hope to know soon whether we finally eclipsed that world recycling record.

PHOTOS: What You Brought to ABC13's Earth Day E-Cycle Drive

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Technology from Yesterday and Today

Throughout the day, an assortment of old technology has made its way onto pallets here at CompuCycle.

We saw many heavy TV sets and bulky computer monitors being unloaded Friday, including a Sears solid state TV dating back from 1980.

Eyewitness News called a pawn shop in Spring Branch, which said the TV could fetch up to $40, depending on how well it works. We found similar models listed on eBay for sale between $150-200.

A few other items we collected Friday:

• Apple iPod Classic - Generation 1, still selling for $200-$500 (excellent to good condition)
• Casio Cassiopeia E-100 Palm-Size PC, $18-$199 on eBay
• Nokia 6085H (Pink), valued between six cents and $30

Couldn't make it to the ABC13 Earth Day E-Cycle Drive?

Don't worry! Here are some great tips and examples on how to help the environment!