Best Buy and Goodwill team up to reduce electronic waste

Best Buy, Inc. (NYSE: BBY) will be joining up with Goodwill Industries in the Silicon Valley market to host a free electronic waste recycling event this weekend. Specifically, the event will be held at the Best Buy location at 5065 Almaden Expressway in San Jose, California from from 9am to 3pm. Here's my beef with this -- why aren't all U.S. Best Buy locations doing this at the same time?

This is a great partnership between two huge brand names. If Best Buy were to really want to pump up its brand name even more, a national partnership with Goodwill seems a great way to do that. The amount of change in consumer electronics means that consumers are replacing equipment -- from older iPods to laptop PCs -- at a pretty decent rate. What happens to all that e-waste?

Toxic substances like lead and mercury exist in all those products (and more), and with more citizens in the U.S. becoming "green" -- as in ecologically-conscious -- a national partnership hosted by the largest consumer electronics retailer in the country with a goal of minimizing electronic waste is a fantastic idea. Best Buy, you could promote this just like a two-day weekend sale. Forget pitching products for a single weekend and promote a campaign like this for a single weekend on national television, cable and in your newspaper circular and website. It could turn out to be one of the best brand-builders you could ever have.