500 million computers became obsolete between 1997-2007. Wow. That's almost 2 computers for every person in the United States--and not everyone has a computer!
Computers are only part of the problem--almost every item we talk about on AT:Home Tech has the potential to become electronic landfill when it expires. Many ingredients to our electronics can be recycled, and some ingredients shouldn't be put out with the regular trash--they need to be specially disposed of.
We want to give you options to best get rid of your electronics when you're done with them: some of them can be recycled, some reused, and some reused or recycled by sharing the love.
• NYC Sanitation gives options for donating items, not just limited to NYC residents (check out the full list for suggestions on non-electronic items as well)
• Directory of places--both for-profit and non-profit--across the country that recycle
• Freecycle.org has over 4,000 freecycling communities and nearly 3.5 million members...someone's bound to want your "junk"
• Find a new home for your stuff and maybe even make a couple of dollars in the process--or give it away for free--by listing on Craigslist.org
• Office Depot will take your printer cartridges, but there are plenty of other places that will as well, often as a fundraiser--just keep your eyes open for local sources
• Recycle for Breast Cancer, found on the above directory, will send you a free shipping label for a lot of your smaller electronics, and if you're near San Ramon, CA, they'll take lot of larger items as well
• Check out this article for options on reusing your electronics and ideas to get you thinking about places that will want your electronics when you're done with them
I have another suggestion for recycling computer hardware and all associated media (CDs, jewel boxes, DAT tapes, etc.) that I got from the mother site:
http://www.greendisk.com/
Very helpful and easy to work with. I am unloading about 350 jewel boxes on them this week.
view Craig's profile
Here in Brazil we have a NGO called Comitê de Democratização da Informática (Committee for Democracy in Information Technology - http://www.cdi.org.br ) that accepts used computers in good shape and takes it to low-income communities, where they fund informal learning centers. There is an office in the US, as far as I know, as well as in other Latin America countries. This is usually the destination of my used appliances.
view Fernanda's profile