Gazelle. com will pay you for your recyclable items.

With Earth Day just two weeks away, it is good to know that somewhere out there, there is someone willing to pay you to get rid of your old electronics gadgets. That someone in question is a company called Gazelle at Gazelle.com.
The philosophy behind Gazelle business model is that most gadgets collecting dust in people attic and closets, are still in working condition and got tossed away just to make room for the next new thing. So to give people incentive to recycle their unwanted items, Gazelle would literally pay them to part with them.
The way it works is very simple: on Gazelle.com, you type in the name of the product you are looking to unload and answer a few questions about it like what condition it is in, and if you have all the original accessories that came with it etc. The site then automatically prices the gadget based on its condition and the demand for it in the market. If you are happy with the offer, all you need to do is hit a button to accept it. From there, the company will send you a pre-paid shipping box to send the gadget in.
After your gadget sells, Gazelle.com will send you your earnings via PayPal, check or an Amazon.com gift card.
Gazelle.com is so dedicated to recycling that even your product has no value or does not sell, the site will still take it and recycle it.

For more, see NYTimes.com

Plastic Jungle helps sell, donate or exchange unsused gift cards.

Nowadays gift cards have become very popular with people who use them as an easy option when the need to buy someone a gift, arises. But as popular as they are for the givers, that may not be the same for the recipients with 10% of them who do not redeem their cards or do it only partially. That makes the merchants that issue those cards the real winners in this exchange. If gift cards recipients have all kind of reasons not to use them in the past, now they have an option to take advantage of them by trading them for cash or for another card that they really want to use. A nascent trading market of second hand gift cards has sprung up in recent years, allowing owners of unwanted cards to unload them.
Plastic Jungle.com a California start up is one the companies that buys, sells or exchange unused gift cards for cash or a credit with Amazon.com. Plastic Jungle buys those cards at a discount ( about 8o percent of the original price) and resells them at a slightly higher price.
Beside Amazon.com, Plastic Jungle has partnered with Donors Choose.org, an non profit organization that match donors with schools around the country in need of supplies. In that partnership, gift cards owners can choose to do good with their cards by donating the full face value of the cards to needy schools through Donors Choose.org.
According to the New York Times, "the non profit organization will match the difference between the original balance on the gift card and what Plastic Jungle pays the donor “so that donors don’t lose a single penny when donating a gift card.”

For more, see NYTimes.com