What do you do with old hardware?

P

Pipo

Gawd
Joined
Jan 31, 2003
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708
I have a few boxes worth of spare cables, old harddrives, cpus, a videocard and unused heatsinks. What do you guys do with them? Is it safe to just toss 'em out into the trash or do they have to be disposed differently?
 
Depends on what the hardware is. CRT monitors definately should not be simply tossed away; they've got quite a bit of lead in them and should be disposed of properly.

Sometimes the local landfill or local companies might have free recycling/disposal days where you can bring in several pieces of computer equipment for proper recycling or disposal. That'd be the best option to get rid of your junk.

Non-electronics junk such as empty cases and heatsinks are safe to toss. Cables are generally safe to trash too (I think anyway; some cables might use lead solder).

I wipe and destroy hard drives; partly for security and partly to salvage them for their magnets and shiny platters.
 
I save all my old stuff and use it for something (testing, a linux router, spare pc). You can always give your old stuff to the salvation army or a recycling center.
 
I recently got rid of a bunch of really old stuff. A local computer recycler took my junk parts boxes. Disassembled pc's are free, but they charge $5 for a CRT to take it.

I always end up with junk since I build pc's for people and take their old pc away most of the time and the parts are 99% total old junk. For my personal PC I usually buy just behind the bleeding edge, then sell it in about a year which effectively recycles my own PC and I get a yearly upgrade for a few hundred dollars out of pocket.
 
I was always wondering if there is a real computer recycling place near me but I have found absolutely nothing near the Philly area so far.
 
I keep cables, drives, cards, power supplies etc. Cases I toss out or scrap. I take old monitors and printers to my city's service department. They have a computer round-up all year round in conjunction with the county, so I can take things there any time. People give me old stuff all the time, and I really have no use for it. The county repairs/recycles them, so it all goes to a good place. As far as dead parts go, I just throw them in the trash.
 
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