@my4mainecoons said in PSA: Staples imposes a fee of $2.99 for recycling is battery in certain states as of 5/3/26.:

I just recycled a coin battery. No $2.99 charge but no credit either.

I am in Southern California and I just recycled my 6 ink cartridges and one AA alkaline battery and I got 3000 points, so I got 500 points for each of the cartridges but no points for my alkaline battery and they didn’t charge me any fee luckily. I wonder what the select states that are being hit with a recycling fee are.

@c3 said in PSA: Staples imposes a fee of $2.99 for recycling is battery in certain states as of 5/3/26.:

@mrvietnam said in PSA: Staples imposes a fee of $2.99 for recycling is battery in certain states as of 5/3/26.:

I still have a huge box of free after rewards batteries I got at Office Depot over the last decade, so I won’t be buying batteries for years to come.

You should check them. I’ve had to throw out a lot of brand new batteries because of leakage.

Thanks. I do. If they leak you can call Duracell and they will mail you a coupon for free batteries.

@mistercheap said in PSA: Staples imposes a fee of $2.99 for recycling is battery in certain states as of 5/3/26.:

@rick505 said in PSA: Staples imposes a fee of $2.99 for recycling is battery in certain states as of 5/3/26.:

I just read on the Staples subreddit, the $2.99 fee is waived if you purchase a battery at the same time.

The fee is waived if you purchase batteries in the same transaction. And you can price match (to Walmart, where they’re half the price).

https://www.reddit.com/r/Staples/comments/1t2s0ej/psa_staples_no_longer_recycles_batteries_for_free/

This will be useful when they run their Free after Rewards Batteries deals, then bring in a bag of 200 old batteries. Better than paying for batteries to recycle old ones

I still have a huge box of free after rewards batteries I got at Office Depot over the last decade, so I won’t be buying batteries for years to come.

Does anyone know of the items Staples will still recycle for free and you points back, besides monitors?

@penguin110 said in PSA: Staples scraps rewards points for recycling batteries as of 5/3/26. .:

I recycled a computer yesterday and received the points. The cashier listed it as a monitor.

Interesting. Thank you for testing it out. I wonder what other tech items they will give points for, even without having an offer on the app. I will recycle ink cartridges later today and try to recycle a battery and see if they impose a $2.99 charge or not. If they impose a charge, then I won’t recycle the battery but if not, I will and I’ll see if I get any points. From what I’ve read the fee might only be in certain states and not everywhere.

It’s kind of funny that Staples will make changes like this and not even tell the customers beforehand and just let them get to the store and find out. Seems like pretty poor customer relations.

@pakle said in PSA: Coming attractions - Staples will charge $2.99 fee to recycle batteries per transaction starting Sunday, 5/3/26. .:

So it looks like pts for tech recycle is totally gone? I read the initial comments and recycled a battery yesterday, no pts since I already did it in April. Now the tech recycling offer is totally gone from the app offers. Assume recycling an old cable won’t even get the ‘other tech’ pts now either.

That is what I am thinking too. I think now the points for recycling program may be limited entirely to ink and toner cartridges recycling. I guess one could test it out by recycling something “other technology” and see if they get any points.

@my4mainecoons said in PSA: Coming attractions - Staples will charge $2.99 fee to recycle batteries per transaction starting Sunday, 5/3/26. Recycle your montly alkaline battery now to avoid the fee.:

@mrvietnam May 2. I checked yesterday.

So then I have no case. I just assumed the offers were monthly. I won’t waste my time calling then. I have about 100 used AA batteries I will be throwing away soon as I can’t get rewards points for them anymore.

It looks like the only thing you can tecycle at Staples going forward are ink cartridges. I say that because as of this morning I only see a recycling offer for ink cartridges.

I wouldn’t be surprised if later this year they get rid of the ink recycling also. I’m with Mistercheap. Nothing would surprise me at this point as they make changes and don’t tell the customer in advance, kind of make changes.with no prior notice to their customers. Good thing I don’t have a box of three or 400 cartridges that could become worthless if they have plane to scrap the recycling program.

Does anyone know if the April battery recycling offer had an expiration date of April 30 or May 2 because if it was April 30 I think I will call Staples to see if they’ll give me points for the battery I recycled on May 2 since there may have been a new offer that supposedly expired May 2 and I didn’t get my points. I think I will call Monday to Staples rewards Customer Service and just see if they’ll give me credit for my May 2 recycling. Nothing to lose and $2.50 to gain…

@c3 said in PSA: Coming attractions - Staples will charge $2.99 fee to recycle batteries per transaction starting Sunday, 5/3/26. Recycle your montly alkaline battery now to avoid the fee.:

I got points for recycling “other tech” today.

What “other tech” did you recycle today?

@mistercheap said in PSA: Coming attractions - Staples will charge $2.99 fee to recycle batteries per transaction starting Sunday, 5/3/26. Recycle your montly alkaline battery now to avoid the fee.:

@c3 said in PSA: Coming attractions - Staples will charge $2.99 fee to recycle batteries per transaction starting Sunday, 5/3/26. Recycle your montly alkaline battery now to avoid the fee.:

The current offer says “Expires 5/2/26”. Why bother with this month at all, for only 2 days? Strange.

Thinking the same thing, if you recycled in April, the April period runs to 5/2 and you may not get $2.50 on a battery turn in today if you already did it for April. @MrVietnam take note.

With the price of gas and my staples store being 5-6 miles away, it will cost me $2+ in gas just to go there. Not going to even risk it, at best I break even if I get the $2.50 for today with gas at $4.49 around here.

You are right, Mistercheap. I recycled a battery on April 2 and got my $2.50 and I went this morning and recycled another battery on May 2, but I didn’t get any points for that. I did get the normal 3000 points for six recycled ink cartridges though, so I guess you only need to run out and do the deal if you didn’t recycle a battery in April otherwise you’re wasting your gas and time.

I guess we will all find out on Sunday, but I plan on recycling my battery tomorrow to get my $2.50 in points while I still can. It is probably just a matter of time before they scrap the recycling program entirely, including ink recycling… Good thing I only have enough cartridges for ink recycling through the end of the year.