Electronics Recycling

[BarTopDancer]

REcycle Small Electronics for Free by Mail: (http://planetgreen.discovery.com/tech-transport/recycle-your-electronics-by-mail.html)

This was announced in March, but the word has been slow to spread.

You can now recycle your small electronics and printer cartridges through the U.S. Postal Service's Mail Back program, for free. To discard your inkjet cartridges, PDAs, BlackBerries, digital cameras, iPods, and MP3 players in an environmentally responsible way, place them in the free, postage-paid envelopes available at 1,500 post offices across the country, then pop them in the mail.

This would benefit those who don't want to try and sell their old items, or have a stash of phones that are ancient.

[MouseWife]

Wow, this is, in fact, pretty cool. ;0)Thanks!

[innerSpaceman]

We kept meaning to drop our electro waste at UCLA, where they have a drop-off point early on Saturday mornings.


BUT ... they decided to prowl Westside neighborhoods last Monday and pick-up all the electronic waste!! How cool was that?!?




(Of course, something else broke beyond repair on ... believe it or not ... Tuesday.)

[Kevy Baby]

This is cool - thanks for posting it!

I mentioned this in another thread yesterday, but there are more and more in-store recycling options as well. I know Best Buy has had drop boxes in their stores for many years. I am seeing them in more places recently, even in my local Vons supermarket!

[BarTopDancer]

Yup. More and more things should be recycled and not tossed.

Electronics chargers, batteries, cables, toner.

I found FreeRecycling.com that pays for items, but I didn't do much research on it.

There's a bunch of those type of sites out there as well.

Goodwill and Salvation Army usually take broken printers, newer TVs, computers (be sure to remove your hard drive) and other electronics to use in their vocational rehabilitation training.

[Kevy Baby]

(be sure to remove your hard drive)Good point which brings up another question: what do you do with the hard drive? I don't want to go so far as to disassemble it to remove and then shred the platters. Any suggestions on this?


ETA: this reminds me of a lesson I learned that could have been VERY painful. Many years ago (mid-90's) , I took a notebook computer to a trusted repair place (I knew the guy personally). It was one of the first Mac notebooks (Powerbook 140 (http://lowendmac.com/pb/powerbook-140.html)). Since the motherboard was fried and it wasn't worth paying to replace it, I told them to wipe the HD and toss it.

A couple of months later, I received a call from the FBI (:eek:). Bottom line was that someone (it turned out to be the UPS delivery driver at the place that fixed my computer), pulled my notebook out of the trash, shipped it to his buddy in Washington who opened the box of a NEW notebook and placed my computer in the box which was then delivered to some governmental agency. They did full forensics on the hard drive (which had been wiped, but obviously not as cleanly as it should have been!) and were able to pull my name, etc. off the computer. Hence why they were calling me.

The agent hinted that they hadn't thought I was involved (which, obviously I wasn't), but I was still a little stressed by the situation. I later learned that this was a ring involving several UPS personnel and others that was eventually broken up.

So now, I am VERY careful about disposing of hard drives (as in, I don't :))

[BarTopDancer]

Good point which brings up another question: what do you do with the hard drive? I don't want to go so far as to disassemble it to remove and then shred the platters. Any suggestions on this?

Magnets

sledgehammer

Or buy some software that will really super wipe the drive.

I prefer the sledgehammer method.

Or keep it, buy a case for it and use it as an external drive for your new machine.

[Kevy Baby]

Magnets

sledgehammer

Or buy some software that will really super wipe the drive.

I prefer the sledgehammer method.

Or keep it, buy a case for it and use it as an external drive for your new machine.Apple has built in to their OS an optional "secure empty trash" function which basically writes nonsense data over the files being deleted.

But I have some bare SCSI drives that I want to discard. Unfortunately, I don't have any working computers with SCSI drives or ports (I do have a SCSI external enclosure). I could probably get an adapter I guess.

[lizziebith]

<snip>
Or keep it, buy a case for it and use it as an external drive for your new machine.

That's what I do...I have every hard drive I've ever owned...it's sometimes fun to poke through them and giggle at what I once thought was so shiny...:)

[BarTopDancer]

I have some disks that I want to go through. Need to get unlazy and buy a drive for them.

[The Original OC Adventure]

REcycle Small Electronics for Free by Mail: (http://planetgreen.discovery.com/tech-transport/recycle-your-electronics-by-mail.html)

This was announced in March, but the word has been slow to spread.



This would benefit those who don't want to try and sell their old items, or have a stash of phones that are ancient.

There's a beter way to dispose of old (working) cell phones. Donate them to your local domestic violence shelter. All cell phones can be used to call 911, even if the phone isn't activated.

[BarTopDancer]

There's a beter way to dispose of old (working) cell phones. Donate them to your local domestic violence shelter. All cell phones can be used to call 911, even if the phone isn't activated.

That is a good idea, if the phone is new enough. Older phones are so outdated they won't work with the current network.

[Alex]

The benefit of most of these electronics recycling programs are that it makes it easier to ensure that rather than polluting our own landfills and run off water it ends up polluting the landfills (read: shantytowns) and run off of third-world countries.

Some good recycling does get done but mostly this electronic waste just moves downhill to poor countries where it will get processed cheaply and in not particularly clean ways.

[Pirate Bill]

In Portland we have a place called FreeGeek (http://www.freegeek.org/) that is particular about keeping everything local so the recycled electronics do really get recycled or disposed of properly, and not in 3rd world countries.

They also will wipe or destroy hard drives for you. And I'd trust them. But I can't vouch for the legitimacy of other places. The reason I'd trust FreeGeek is because I've put in many Saturdays as a volunteer there and got to know them from the inside.

They have a store where old but useable electronics can find a second life. I've picked up some really cheap but still very good stuff there.

The place does smell like pee, but that's my only gripe.

[The Original OC Adventure]

In Portland we have a place called FreeGeek (http://www.freegeek.org/)that is particular about keeping everything local so the recycled electronics do really get recycled or disposed of properly, and not in 3rd world countries.

They also will wipe or destroy hard drives for you. And I'd trust them. But I can't vouch for the legitimacy of other places. The reason I'd trust FreeGeek is because I've put in many Saturdays as a volunteer there and got to know them from the inside.

They have a store where old but useable electronics can find a second life. I've picked up some really cheap but still very good stuff there.

The place does smell like pee, but that's my only gripe.

They have a program for low income people that gives them a free computer in exchange for some volunteer work.

I like the concept. I wish they had something like this in the L.A. area. So many here could benefit from it.

[Pirate Bill]

They have a program for low income people that gives them a free computer in exchange for some volunteer work.

I like the concept. I wish they had something like this in the L.A. area. So many here could benefit from it.
Not just low income people. Anyone who puts in 24 volunteer hours gets a computer and a quick training course in how to use it. They also have a build program where they educate you on how to build a computer and you get to keep the 6th one you build. That program takes 80 to 100 hours to complete though, depending on your skill.