old laptop and computer

[The Princess]

How do you get rid of old computers?

 

[puffkin]

My township sponsors free recycling days. They have an electronics recycler come in and you can just drop all the stuff off on certain Saturdays throughout the year.

 

[mikehn]

make sure to wipe off all the data on your drive. There are bits of personal data buried in there.

 

[amcnj]

Electronics disposal can vary. Check on your town or possibly county website to see how they handle them. Around here you have to recycle tvs and computers.

But as was mentioned previously, wipe/destroy the memory before whatever disposal method you use.

 

[scard192]

my town has one once a year. and the landlord in the building where I work has recycling day twice a year and we can bring personal electronics too.

 

[HM]

Our town just had an event this past weekend for recycling old electronics. We took everything except our computers/laptops as we didn't have time to wipe our hard drives. They'll do it again in October and we'll take those in then. We got rid of four monitors, a typewriter, a tube tv, an old tuner, some other computer components, etc. Check with your city and county to see if they do something like this too. The website said they'd take any kind of electronics expect for big kitchen appliances. So cellphones and hair dryers and power tools,etc. could have gone too.

 

[3boymthr]

We have an electronics recycler in our town. We can also put them out with the trash on bulk pick up day.

As a wise person who was a computer programming expert once told me make sure to erase the drive then separate the hard drive from the computer and smash it with a hammer before disposing of it. Even when they've been erased there are hacking programs that can recover some of the data. It's very easy to remove the hard drive - just pop of the outer case and slide out the drive. Takes about 5 minutes to remove it. ETA - he also said to dispose of the pieces gradually.

There are also destruction services that will come to your home and take the computer for a fee. They guarantee the safety of your information. A few of my clients use them.

 

[AllesonWonderland]

I've used the Best Buy recycling program before:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/global-promotions/recycling-electronics/pcmcat149900050025.c?id=pcmcat149900050025

I either took the hard drive out and kept it if I thought I would need to access anything on it again, or I let the kids go at it with a hammer.

 

[SplashMo]

I do a web search on pc recycle and my town name. There was one a mile away that was free...

 

[bjscheel]

I've used the Best Buy recycling program before:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/global-promotions/recycling-electronics/pcmcat149900050025.c?id=pcmcat149900050025

I either took the hard drive out and kept it if I thought I would need to access anything on it again, or I let the kids go at it with a hammer.

DD16 made an awesome video for an old laptop in which she did everything from shoot arrows through the screen, to drag it behind the 4 wheeler, let DH run over it with the semi, took a crowbar to it and more...it was fun...