WEST KINGSTON and FRAMINGHAM – APC by Schneider Electric has teamed up with office supplies retailer Staples Inc. (Nasdaq: SPLS) to create a new national program for recycling discarded uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems.

For a fee of $10 per unit, customers can drop off their old UPS systems (3000 kVA and under) at the customer service desk of a local Staples store to have them recycled. Units from all manufacturers will be accepted. The $10 charge will cover the handling, transport, disassembly and recycling of the unit, according to APC, which last year became part of the French company Schneider Electric.

“It is critical that we all do our part as consumers to conserve resources through reducing waste and recycling,” Dave Johnson, APC’s senior vice president for home & business networks, said in a statement.

To kick off the new recycling program, the two companies will also run a “Trade In, Trade Up” promotion from July 27 to Aug. 31, during which customers can bring a UPS system to be recycled and Staples will waive the $10 recycling fee and give them an instant $20 rebate toward the purchase of a new APC Back-UPS system.

Framingham-based office supplies retailer Staples Inc. (Nasdaq: SPLS), founded in 1986, posted sales of $19.4 billion dollars in 2007. For more information, including store locations, visit www.staples.com.

APC by Schneider Electric is a member – together with MGE UPS Systems – of the $3.5 billion Critical Power & Cooling Services (CPCS) business unit of Rueil-Malmaison, France-based Schneider Electric (Paris: SU.PA). For more information, visit www.apc.com.