Dell probably started that recycling deal to keep slightly old machines out of the refurb market so they could sell more DELL machines. Around here the refurb market is flooded with DELL and Emachines systems plus a few macs. If DELL repositions itself as a service company and makes tons of money doing that they will probably cancel the free recycling deal. From my information (at a scrapper forum I frequent) there is around $11 per tower in money to be made in recycling (depending on what commodity prices are) and local scrappers generally pay $4-5 for a complete tower which they then break down. So it could be DELL isn't exactly losing money doing the recycling. There is also money in recycling cell phones and cell batteries among other things. Doesn't seem like there is much money at all in recycling laptops (maybe the battery).