For Boulder residents who have old computers, TVs and cables sitting around their home and no idea what to do with them, a University of Colorado Boulder student has come up with a cost-effective and convenient solution.
CU Boulder junior Natalie Juett has started Juett Tech Rescue, an electronic waste pickup service where she’ll pick up and properly dispose of old electronics from Boulder residents for a $25 flat fee. Since March, Juett has completed 22 pickups and diverted roughly 830 pounds of electronic waste, or e-waste.
Other waste management companies may offer e-waste pickup as one of their services, Juett said, and may charge $40 or more for a pickup. Otherwise, residents may haul their e-waste to a proper facility and pay processing fees out of pocket. With her pickup service, Juett aims to make e-waste management convenient and affordable.“There’s a big, big demand and a big market for it, and there’s a lack of service,” Juett said. “So that’s where I come in.”
She’ll pick up old phones, stereos, cables, computers, gaming consoles and TVs, in addition to small home appliances such as toasters or humidifiers.
“If it runs on battery or if it plugs in, we’ll take it,” Juett said.
Boulder resident Denise Gilbert saw an ad in Nextdoor for Juett’s e-waste pickup service after her husband’s work upgraded all their computers, and he brought the old ones home. She had no idea what she was supposed to do with them, so she had Juett come out and pick them up.
“It was so easy,” Gilbert said. “…She was able to take all of them and rehome them, so nothing went to waste.”
Juett found someone who would take all the computer monitors and parts and repurpose them, since they were all in working condition, diverting 290 pounds of e-waste. And Juett picked up all the technology for just $25.
“It’s an excellent service,” Gilbert said.
Juett schedules e-waste pickups around her school schedule and hired a friend to help her with pickups. Juett donates 10% of the profits from every pickup to the Basel Action Network, a nonprofit with a mission that includes “catalyzing a toxics-free future,” its website says.
Juett takes any e-waste that can’t be reused or refurbished to an e-waste processing facility in the Broomfield area. If the electronics she picks up can be repurposed, such as a TV or a stereo, she’ll often list it for free on Facebook Marketplace, take it to a pawn shop for free or find someone who can reuse it.
E-waste is one of the fastest-growing solid waste streams in the world, according to a World Health Organization webpage dated 2024. In 2022, an estimated “62 million tonnes” of e-waste were produced globally, and only 22.3% was documented as formally collected and recycled. E-waste contains several known neurotoxicants, including lead and mercury, according to the WHO.
It’s against Colorado law to dispose of e-waste in a landfill, according to Boulder County’s website, or to put electronics out to the curb for collection.
Juett’s goal is to complete at least 120 pickups and divert 5,000 pounds of e-waste in the next year.
“It’s all just about helping clients declutter their electronic waste responsibly,” she said.
Juett Tech Rescue was set to have a booth from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sunday and Monday at the Boulder Creek Festival in the vendor area by the Boulder Public Library, 1001 Arapahoe Ave. For more information or to schedule a pickup, visit juetttechrescue.org.
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