Staples Challenges Students with a Nationwide Recycling Competition and a Chance to Win $25,000 for Their School; Animal Planet's Jeff Corwin Launches the Competition That Makes It Easy for Schools to Fundraise and Help Keep the Environment Clean.

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. -- Staples the Office Superstore, LLC, an affiliate of Staples, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLS), the world's largest office products company, along with Animal Planet's Jeff Corwin, today launched a nationwide cartridge recycling competition. The Staples $25,000 Cartridge Chase challenges students to form teams and collect empty ink and toner cartridges through March 1, 2006. The teams will receive $3.00 for each eligible cartridge recycled and the team that collects the most empty cartridges wins $25,000 on Earth Day 2006.

"It's a fun competition that will engage students and faculty in recycling and also give them an easy way to raise money for their school," said Mark Buckley, vice president of environmental affairs at Staples. "We encourage our small business customers and residents of the community to donate their empty cartridge to help their local school."

Teachers can log on to www.staplesrecyclefored.com and register their team to receive a welcome kit including flyers to announce the competition. Staples will provide prepaid postage for shipping the cartridges and an account number so the team can monitor the status of reimbursement checks and total collection counts-- making it easy to facilitate school contests between different teams and encourage participation. Throughout the competition, Staples will keep the website updated with the names of the schools in the lead.

The Staples $25,000 Cartridge Chase was officially launched today with the support of Animal Planet's Jeff Corwin, host of CORWIN'S QUEST, author of Living on the Edge and internationally known for his commitment to animals and the environment they live in.

"We all have an important role to play in protecting our environment," said Corwin. "I applaud Staples for offering an easy way to help the environment and our schools through its Recycle for Education program."

The recycling competition was created through Staples Recycle for Education, a nationwide in-school cartridge recycling program in which Staples donates money for each eligible cartridge recycled. Today Staples also announced that the company will triple its donation and give $3.00 for each eligible cartridge for those schools participating in the Staples Recycle for Education program. The increased donation will make it easy for schools to raise thousands of dollars through recycling even after the competition has ended. Schools and education charities across the country have received over $2.5 million through the program since it launched in July 2003.

Recycling ink and toner cartridges is an important way for people to help protect the planet. Eighty percent of inkjet cartridges are thrown in the trash, with the expectation that each cartridge will take 1,000 years to decompose. Staples' environmental commitment extends to the procurement and promotion of recycled content products, chain-wide recycling initiatives such as Recycle for Education, energy conservation initiatives and renewable power procurement and education initiatives for customers and associates. The Staples $25,000 Cartridge Chase is another initiative the company hopes will increase recycling awareness.

More information on The Staples $25,000 Cartridge Chase and the Recycle for Education program can be found at www.staplesrecyclefored.com.

About Staples

Staples, Inc. invented the office superstore concept in 1986 and today is the world's largest office products company. With 65,000 talented associates, the company is committed to making it easy to buy a wide range of office products, including supplies, technology, furniture, and business services. With 2004 sales of $14.4 billion, Staples serves consumers and businesses ranging from home-based businesses to Fortune 500 companies in 21 countries throughout North and South America, Europe and Asia. Headquartered outside of Boston, Staples operates approximately 1,716 office superstores and also serves its customers through mail order catalog, e-commerce and contract businesses. More information is available at www.staples.com.

About Jeff Corwin

Best known as Animal Planet host and executive producer of Corwin's Quest (every Wednesday at 9pm ET/PT) and The Jeff Corwin Experience, Emmy award-winner Jeff Corwin delivers awe and respect for the natural world in a way that is both wildly funny and educational. His first book, Living on the Edge: Amazing Relationships in the Natural World captures the adventurous and educational spirit that fans expect while exploring the fantastic relationships among rare wildlife in four exotic ecosystems. When not in the field, Jeff lectures on wildlife, ecology and conservation to audiences across the US, and has established an interactive museum and environmental education center called the EcoZone in Norwell, MA. Jeff's winning personality combined with his camera-friendly good looks led editors to choose him as one of People Magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People" and Entertainment Weekly's highly regarded "It List". And Men's Journal magazine called him "the world's greatest animal show host."