ABC13 Earth Day e-cycle drive returns to northwest Houston Friday

Old computers, phones, tablets, routers, printers, smartwatches, gaming systems, TVs, cables and audio equipment can all be dropped off free at northwest Houston’s ABC13 Earth Day E-Cycle Drive, where residents can stay in their cars and hand over electronics without an appointment. The 19th annual event is set for Friday, April 24, from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. at CompuCycle, 8019 Kempwood Drive, giving Harris County households a quick way to clear out tech clutter while keeping hazardous waste out of the trash stream.

The drive has become one of the region’s biggest one-day recycling events. ABC13 says the effort holds the Guinness World Record for the largest single-day e-waste collection, set in 2014 at 128,699 pounds, and later coverage has cited a retrospective total of more than 138,000 pounds for that same record-setting year. The collection has surpassed 100,000 pounds multiple times, and recent turnout has often been strong enough to send vehicles into a steady line before the gates open.

The environmental payoff is substantial. ABC13’s 2025 coverage said the previous drive cut 45.37 metric tons of greenhouse gases, saved 383.72 gallons of oil, avoided nearly 10 cars’ worth of emissions, preserved 293.60 cubic yards of landfill space and saved 3,736,637.20 hours of electricity. For a county as large and car-dependent as Harris County, that kind of single-day collection matters because it turns a chore into a free disposal option with measurable environmental gains.

CompuCycle has been part of that story since 1996, when John Hess founded the company. Clive and Kelly Hess bought it in 2013, and the business later moved from a 50,000-square-foot space into an 80,000-square-foot northwest Houston facility in March 2018 before expanding to a total of 120,000 square feet. The company says it is Texas’s only woman-owned electronics recycler with both R2v3 and e-Stewards certifications, a distinction that helps explain why residents, businesses and institutions rely on it for secure processing, hard-drive destruction and e-plastics recycling.

The timing also lines up with a broader push for safer electronics disposal in Greater Houston. Goodwill Houston announced a partnership with CompuCycle on Jan. 15, 2026, to expand responsible recycling, while the City of Houston also offers free residential electronics drop-off through its Environmental Service Centers. The ABC13 drive stands out because it condenses that convenience into one fast, drive-through day in northwest Houston, where a loaded trunk can be emptied in minutes and kept out of the landfill for good.