Dell is now the only computer maker to offer consumers free recycling, whether or not they are buying a new Dell product. You can go to a Dell website, and print out a prepaid shipping label to return your Dell desktop, laptop, printer or ink cartridge, free of charge. They'll send a service to pick the equipment up.

 

"In terms of producer takeback, they have the best policy of any global electronics company, period," says Robin Schneider, of the Texas Campaign for the Environment. "They went from being a laggard to being a leader."

What turned the company around? Michael Dell cites several factors - consumer demand, the threat of regulation and the recognition that electronic waste, or e-waste, is a significant problem.

"If we sell 40 million computers a year, and the industry is going to sell 200 million computers a year, at some point they are going to come out of circulation," he says. "Where do they all go? I want to be in a position where we are doing the right thing."