What do you do with old computers/monitors?

[HayGan]

We have several old CPUs and monitors that we need to get rid of. Anyone have any suggestions on how to safely get rid of these. I don't want to landfill them and ideally I would like to find a place that will clear the hard drives for us.

 

[HunnyPots]

Well you can do what my dh does: keep them forever and let them collect a ton of dust all the while saying, "I'm gonna do something with that".
Seriously, I'd love to know what to do with them as well...

 

[Fizzgig]

If you have a drill, take the hard drives out and put a few holes through the platters.

Call your local electronics store and ask if they have a recycling program they use or can recommend.

Call your local school district and see if they can use the machines.

 

[8 Ears]

You can do what our youngest DS did with his "old one"

Used it for target practice with his BB Gun!!

 

[Scrapfriend]

Staples (and probably others) will take them if you pay a fee. I know in our area (wa state) some organizations have fund raisers with a local recycler, where part of the fee comes back to the organization. A search online of your local county or city may come up with some answers too.

 

[Brer Shay]

Twice a year our county has an electronics recycling day. You can take monitors, cpus, laptops, phones, batteries, etc.. and they dispose of it properly. I think they raid them for metals, but I'm not sure. As PP said, drill some holes through your hard drive first.

 

[InstImpres]

I would call the town recyling center. We only used to be able to do it twice a year on a county level but now the town has regular dates and other places we can bring them in between. All no to low fee (I think it was $5 last time)

 

[Foladar]

Staples and Office Depot does that recycling thing near us. Its about 10 bucks for a monitor, maybe 15.

You could try this site: http://earth911.org/

 

[AnninIowa]

Put them out by the curb with a "FREE" sign - someone will take them!

 

[Sandy321]

a neighbor has a business, where he collects this old cpu's and gathers the gold out of them Its beyond my knowledge of motherboards cpu's monitors etc... but with gold at $900 an ounce... I cant imagine why we're being charged with taking it away...

 

[mountdew1]

Before you do anything with em, SCRUB EM YOURSELF! Look for a program called Darik's Boot And Nuke. You download a disc image. (Most major CD burning programs support this. Burn the image to a disc. Put the CD in your drive, and boot it up. Instead of booting into windows you should be able to boot into the program. Pick a level of erasing, and let it rip. It's a free program that will erase your HD to department of defense levels or better.

Once you have done that, check with local charities and schools. Many places won't accept terribly old PC's or PC's without an operating system, but check around first. If no local places will take them, hit up ebay for the computers. Sell them for 5 or 10 bucks, most likely they will get bought for parts alone. Check with your local dump for laws regarding the disposal of monitors. Some states it is illegal to trash CRT monitors and you will need to pay the recycling fee.

 

[mountdew1]

a neighbor has a business, where he collects this old cpu's and gathers the gold out of them Its beyond my knowledge of motherboards cpu's monitors etc... but with gold at $900 an ounce... I cant imagine why we're being charged with taking it away...

Because its hazardous to remove the gold. Doing so involves toxic chemicals that release stuff into the air from my understanding. It is possible he is just pulling off the visible gold, but then he still ends up tossing lots of possible metal. And along with the metal, he is tossing some toxic stuff. The CPU's aren't usually hard to dispose, its the monitors with the gases that are really bad.

 

[Mickeyorbust]

I second the donating to charity one. There are a lot of charities that will take them. Something like a home for battered women and children, veterans services, etc. Some have IT professionals volunteer to fix them and set them up.

 

[JandJ]

If they are too old to donate to a school or charity and you need to dispose of them you need to find a chemical recycling place or chemical dump. Our county has a chemical recycling place that's open once a month and that's the only place to safely (legally??) dispose of them. We've taken a couple monitors there. Call your county garbage collection office about chemical dumping or recycling.

 

[Taja]

Our city operates a mobile hazardous waste collection site 8 or 9 months of the year (not during the summer--it's too hot!). I removed my hard drives, drilled holes in them, then took the old computers (along with old CFL bulbs, batteries, etc.) to the collection site. The program serves a large area, so they move it to make it more accessible to everyone at some point during the year.

Check with your city/county and see if they offer something similar.

 

[ldrprn]

thanks for the advice. WE have several cluttering up the dining room. I'd love to get them out of the house.

 

[abeyst]

My step-dad works at a recycle business where they pick up this kind of stuff from businesses. I know they'd take stuff people wanted to drop off, maybe y'all can check your local phone book for recycling businesses. It would be easier to go to your local recycling center, but as a last resort you could try this.

 

[moretigger]

Haygan -

The goodwill store on the southside of Pittsburgh has a computer donation center. It is right on Carson street.

 

[petlvr1064]

i work for good will in iowa and recently we stared a computer reclying program people donate them and then they are sent away and sold for scrap or refurbused and sold in our stores. i do not know if any good will out side good will of the heartland is doi ng this but it is worth checking in to.

 

[mmkk]

I don't know how "old" your computer is but there is a website for donation of computers- www.1000computers.org. But I think they are only accepting Pentium III or newer.