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In San Francisco, I've used both:

http://www.crc.org/ [Computer Recycling Center]

http://zarcnet.com/ [Zarc]

They set up neighborhood drop offs fairly often in different neighborhoods. You load up all of your computer junk in boxes, drive by, stop your car, they swoop in and take all of your junk and you drive off. Takes about 2 minutes.

The CRC also has a couple of permanent locations around the bay area.

You should be able to use Google to find similar organizations in your area.

The Electronics Takeback Coalition runs a computer takeback campaign and maintains a list of electronics recyclers who they have deemed "responsible" based on a pledge the listed recyclers have signed onto. The pledge includes no exporting, no sending to prisons (where labor safety standards are often nonexistent or unenforced), and not sending it to landfills or incinerators.

Here in San Francisco, I regularly bring recycling to Computer Recycling Center dropoffs. They even do pickups if you have at least 10 items to recycle at once.

Donate your stuff.

• FreeCycle
• Computer Recycling Center
• Alameda County Computer Resource Center
• Goodwill
• Salvation Army

Also, check out your city's or county's website. They may have local programs for recycling old hardware.

Oh, yeah, you could also donate all your stuff to me.... :)

More than two-thirds of equipment that is "recycled" still gets shipped overseas. The good news? some overseas processors are cleaning up their act, but it is the exception, not the rule. Computer donations are a huge business, btw. Some equipment goes to schools, like CRC http://www.crc.org/ and http://www.pcsforschools.org/, others just do the biz, like Intechra/Retrobox http://www.retrobox.com/. Some people talk about this on blogs http://www.ewasteinsights.info/

Unless you bundle it with some kind of computer giveaway or those fabled $100 laptops, it's not going to be the 'great internet equalizer' or lead to any kind of social equity...

It's not hard to buy a $100 computer. It's not going to be particular new or (in my opinion) particularly useable, but you can get one.

Just check craigslist or your local flea market or swap meet. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if computer donation charities get a growth spurt
because of this wifi program. Check out some links like these for information on donating your own old machines:

http://www.crc.org/
http://www.techsoup.org/recycle/donate
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Technology/Computers_fo r_Learning_pro.html

-Cinnamon

Throw it all out. You aren't going to use those 256MB hard drives, or the 1MB SIMMs, or that ISA SCSI card that only works with the HP SCSI scanner that only works with that card.

If you live in the SF Bay Area, there's always the Computer Recycling Center, with drop-off points in Santa Clara, San Francisco, and Petaluma. Yes, they will take those cables and cards, and maybe in the end someone will be able to make use of them (donation list).

(Although I have a hunch they don't really want my S-100 bus backplane and video card.)

Throw it all out. You aren't going to use those 256MB hard drives, or the 1MB SIMMs, or that ISA SCSI card that only works with the HP SCSI scanner that only works with that card.

If you live in the SF Bay Area, there's always the Computer Recycling Center, with drop-off points in Santa Clara, San Francisco, and Petaluma. Yes, they will take those cables and cards, and maybe in the end someone will be able to make use of them (donation list).

(Although I have a hunch they don't really want my S-100 bus backplane and video card.)

Yea. Lets all reuse our old slow computers and waste more electricity. The problem is when people set up "MP3 Servers" and what not they leave the machine running 24/7. That wastes a lot of electricity. Do you leave the lights on in your home all the time?

There are places that you can take equipment to be disassembled and the metals, glass and plastics be extracted.

Donatations to Computer Recycling Center is one example of getting rid of an old PC. But if the parts are too old they will want money for disposal. There are many places like this. It is a far better solution than using old PCs as "servers".

...right here.

Or, if you're on the other end, you can also apply for a used computer.

...right here.

Or, if you're on the other end, you can also apply for a used computer.

If the situation is that bad, then I must say I really do support some sort of recycling program for computers (I do anyway, but am saying that maybe more needs to be done to make it worthwhile for your average joe/company).

At the very least, the article should have addressed it when it mentioned that hard drives end up in the trash, with something to the effect of "...however, just throwing the drive in the trash contribues to {insert environmental harm issue here}, so they should be zeroed out, then recycled at the Computer Recycling Center." Especially in a San Francisco paper!!

A State, National and International Directory of agencies
that facilitate donations of used computer hardware
for schools and community groups.

Computer Recycling Center accepts for Donation drop-off, ALL computer equipment of ANY age and ANY condition, working or non-working. We charge a small REUSE FEE for older items.
Our Mission is to promote the highest and best re-use of computer equipment, and recycle the unusable items to keep them out of our landfills.

For those of you in the SF bay area (or Palm Springs), Computer Recycling Center is a good way to get rid of equipment you don't want. As the article mentions, they do their best to redistribute computers to organizations that need them. But even if a computer no longer works, they'll salvage parts from it for reuse, and recycle what they can of what remains.