Computer Recycling in Long Beach, CA: Free E-Waste Drop-Off & Business ITAD

MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center, Long Beach Unified School District, and Boeing regularly retire computers and devices. That steady equipment turnover means laptops, monitors, and mobile devices are constantly leaving hospitals, schools, and aerospace facilities across Long Beach and need to be handled responsibly. This guide covers where Long Beach residents can drop off old electronics for free and what local businesses need to know about compliant IT asset disposition.

Free E-Waste Drop-Off for Long Beach Residents

The City of Long Beach's e-waste recycling guidance points residents to Los Angeles County's household hazardous waste and e-waste collection sites. Two permanent county collection centers are closest to Long Beach:

• EDCO Recycling & Transfer Center — 2755 California Ave., Signal Hill, CA 90755 (9 a.m.–2 p.m. on select Saturdays)
• Gaffey Street S.A.F.E. Center — 1400 N. Gaffey Street, San Pedro, CA 90731 (Saturdays and Sundays, 9 a.m.–3 p.m.)

• Cost: there's no charge to drop off electronics at either center
• Who can use it: Los Angeles County residents, including everyone living in Long Beach; Gaffey Street asks residents to provide their address at drop-off

Accepted electronics listed by the city include:

• Computers and laptops
• Computer monitors
• Scanners
• Printers
• Cell phones
• Televisions
• DVD, CD, or VCR players
• Fax machines

The county's collection centers page lists which Saturdays EDCO is open, and Los Angeles County also holds one-day household hazardous waste and e-waste collection events for residents throughout the year. Residents can also mail in equipment through Easy Recycle Store.

What California Law Means for Your Old Electronics

California law puts money into a statewide network of free recycling drop-off sites so consumers aren't stuck figuring out what to do with a dead TV or monitor. That funding comes through the Covered Electronic Waste (CEW) Recycling Program, established under the Electronic Waste Recycling Act of 2003 (SB 20), later amended by SB 50 and SB 1215. Under the program, consumers pay a recycling fee at the point of sale for covered devices with screens larger than 4 inches, including televisions, computer monitors, and laptops, and that fee funds free recycling collection sites operated by approved collectors and recyclers throughout the state; SB 1215 has since expanded coverage to battery-embedded products like smart speakers and personal grooming devices. Residents who want options beyond the city and county drop-off sites can search California's statewide network of certified collectors using CalRecycle's collection site locator by ZIP code or address. While this fee-funded system and state hazardous waste law both apply to electronics generated by businesses, the collection infrastructure was built primarily for households and small generators — large businesses typically need to contract with certified recyclers rather than rely on the fee-funded network.

Business and ITAD Requirements in Long Beach

The county's collection centers are set up for household drop-off, so organizations and businesses need to arrange their own disposal for retired computers, servers, and other IT equipment. Data-security and compliance obligations attach to retired equipment regardless of what recycling law requires, which means a documented process matters more than a convenient drop-off point.

Local businesses and organizations have more stringent requirements for IT asset disposition. For example:

• MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center must comply with HIPAA and HITECH when retiring computers and devices that held protected health information.
• Long Beach Unified School District must comply with FERPA when disposing of devices that stored student records.
• Boeing must protect controlled unclassified information (CUI) when retiring computers and IT equipment tied to its aerospace and defense contracts.
• Port of Long Beach must protect customer and vendor data under contractual and confidentiality obligations and state privacy laws when retiring administrative and operational IT equipment.

Retired business electronics remain subject to federal hazardous waste rules and California's landfill ban on electronic waste, on top of the data-protection obligations named in the employer list above.

For Long Beach businesses that need documented, compliant disposal, PC Disposal provides:

• Data destruction to DoD and NIST standards
• NAID AAA Certified processes
• Secure transport cages
• Compliance with state and federal environmental regulations
• Pickup at the place of business
• A $1,000,000 service guarantee

Long Beach organizations can request a pickup or learn more on PC Disposal's Long Beach computer recycling page to get started with compliant, documented disposal.

Before You Recycle Any Device

• Back up any files, photos, or documents you want to keep before handing over a computer, laptop, or phone.
• Sign out of accounts and deactivate or unlink the device from cloud services, email, and app logins.
• Wipe the device properly — reformatting a drive is not the same as wiping it. Consumers can use data-erasure software to wipe personal devices themselves, while businesses should rely on professional data destruction from a NAID AAA Certified provider like PC Disposal, which supplies a certificate of destruction for their records.

Recycling Options in Long Beach

Long Beach residents have a free, straightforward path for recycling computers and other electronics through the city's e-waste drop-off program, with additional support available through the county's household hazardous waste system. Businesses and organizations facing data-security and compliance obligations have a different set of needs, and PC Disposal offers documented, secure ITAD services built for exactly that purpose. Whichever path applies to you, retiring old electronics responsibly protects both the environment and the data those devices once held.