Ingram Micro is stepping up its recycling programs with a new program that will make it easy (and cost-effective) for resellers to get old electronics and printer supplies out of the way.

The new Smart Steward program, which has launched across North America, will offer resellers incremental revenue opportunities for packing up and shipping back customers’ (or their own) old electronics and printer supplies. As part of the program, Ingram Micro is publishing an up-to-date list to its Smart Steward portal of all the fees resellers can collect for returned electronics and printer supplies.

“We’ve had other recycling programs and initiatives for quite some time, so I think this is a continuation of our commitment to be good corporate citizens,” said Tim Billing, vice president of vendor management at Ingram Micro Canada. “The program that we announced the other day is really part of our overall Smart Citizen initiative in the company, and it’s really part of our commitment to become a good corporate citizen.”

The core focus of this program is around getting consumable printer products (laser, inkjet and multi-function ink cartridges) and cell phones that are no longer in out of the office (or supply closet, wherever you’re keeping them) and to one of several Ingram Micro recycling return points across the country.

“It’s available to all our resellers in both the US and Canada,” Billing said. The Canadian and American versions of the program are virtually identical, and all resellers need to do to take advantage of Smart Steward is point their browser to the Smart Steward Web site, register a profile and then follow directions related to what can be sent back – and where – to Ingram Micro.

Through the Web site, resellers can request shipping materials to use for return of the recyclable products. Resellers can set up accounts for themselves, as well as for their customers to make the process as easy as possible.

“I think one of the benefits of this program is we’ve tried to make it as easy and simple for our partners to work with their end-user clients to recycle product and really take the complexity out of it,” Billing said.

There will be several return points across the country, and resellers will ship to their local Ingram Micro points when they return products (keeping that fuel consumption down at the same time). When the products are returned, resellers will receive trade-in payment from the distributor.