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Office Depot Wants to Recycle Your Old Computer
IcerLeaf writes "CNN reports that Office Depot will happily recycle one old electronics item per customer, per day, from July 18th through September 6th. Qualifying electronics include computers, monitors, printers, scanners, fax machines, digital cameras, cell phones, and TVs 27" or smaller. Office Depot and Hewlett Packard will be splitting the bill. What's coming out of your basement?"
Two winters ago I had finally hit a breaking point of cruft. 11 computers weighed my personal space down, sparc servers and stations, sgi indigo2s and dumb terminals, countless x86 machines in varying states of decay. Sounds like you? In a panic, I updated my slashdot sig announcing that my lan was for sale, more of a joke to myself, a poke at my own sloth. Amazed at an almost immediate response with a serious inquiry, I reconsidered my offer and realized, "why not"? What had that pile of crap done for me? It caused me anguish, it made me think every single night coming home from work, "one of these days, I'm going to clean this place up". And so I went ahead with it, and sold everything on my lan for 400 dollars. I got 1 new machine with it, and 10 months later, an ibook (with other money) I haven't looked back since. In that time I've started, and completed, many of the mundane backburner projects that were always on-hold for seemingly forever. My point to this post is, if you haven't used a thing, and are keeping it because you think you might, why not just get rid of the thing (and this, a chance to do it properly, and for free!) and not let it vex you, sitting idle in the corner, calling out to your procrastinations ... (admittedly, 2 of the 3 boxes i mailed were lost or destroyed. the third, the cables, was received a-ok. the buyer was upset until i told him i had insured them. somewhere, there's a little old lady with a bright purple indigo2 full of potting soil and philodendrons ...)
slashdot: where everyone yells sarcastic metaphors to themselves to understand the issue
thats where I get rid of all my computer junk.
Recycle your used tech with 5R Processors! They are the nation's largest computer recyclers and put a lot of the tech to work either through refurbished sales or donations.
Read jack phelps dot net
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What's coming out of my basement? Heck, I'm going to go and stand in front of these stores and try to take the old stuff from people who are going to recycle it so I can add them to my collection!!
:-)
I'm still looking for that old atari and timex sinclair...
While I think this is great of Office Depot, I think re-implementing some of the older technology to maybe some younger siblings, cousins, Boys and Girls club, etc. could also be good. There are still a lot of people that can afford these types of things. So, before you go recycling that 486 at office depot, thing about re-deployment!
Don't dispose of your old monitors. They have lead and other hazardous materials that we really don't want in our groundwater. Please take this opportunity to have them disposed of properly.
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-- Pablo Picasso
Stop filing Federal Taxes, then ignore their mail and phone calls. Oh, they'll take everything.
1) are they trying to get us into the store(s)? (hoping we'll do some business whilst we're there)
2) are they trying to do the public a service (by getting the possible toxic materials out of the dumps?
3) They're hoping (x)% of the materials turned in with have (y%) of redeeming worth, either directly, for sale on eBay, or as a donation to a local school as write-off donation?
It is impossible to get rid of monitors, at least here in Washington state. Even working monitors. Schools don't want them donated. Salvation Army and similar charities don't want them. You aren't allowed to throw them in the trash. All you can do is sell them, if you can find a buyer who actually wants one, or pay $10 for environmentally correct disposal. ($10 is for a 14" monitor; bigger ones cost more.)
So, this is a free service that is worth $10 or more if you need to get rid of a monitor. Cool.
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
The proper question may be who is coming out the basement.
just = (My)Opinion.toCents();
My wife pointed out that ebay is one of the most powerful resources in recycling that we have today. I'd have to agree. I don't know what Office Depot is doing with these machines, but wouldn't you rather have your old gear to go someone that can make use of it?
For example, I recently got a "new" used car. It came with tired I didn't particularly like. I replaced the tires in fairly short order, and sold the old ones on ebay. They were a mis-matched pair. One pair I sold and because of shipping difficulties I ended up losing about $5 on it. That's less than the $20 I would have paid to take them to the dump, which is probably what would have happened if not for ebay. And now someone has a pair of tires in good shape that they can make use of.
The other pair I sold for $90, because they were not an "off brand".
I've been putting a bunch of my junk up for sale. Things that aren't really useful to me, but are to other folks. Plus, once in a while you come across the rare things like the Dreamcast Ethernet adapter that I sold for twice what I paid for it, or my classic HP calculator which looks like it will sell for almost twice what I paid for it.
Usually, I first offer it to local folks in my Linux Users Group. Selling is much easier that way, and you don't tend to have to muck around with shipping. ebay makes shipping pretty easy though.
So, remember that recycling isn't just about giving things to the "recycling centers". If you can get it to someone who can use it, all the better. If you can recover a few bucks in the process, all the better.
Sean
Recycling is better than throwing out, but I recall it only usually saving 20% energy. Reusing, on the other hand, is much more efficient.
My dog ate my sig
While it is indeed true that there is a lot of money to be made in the recycling business, most all of that money to be made is in charging consumers to recycle instead of tossing things in the landfill.
With the exception of aluminum, most recycling programs would loose money if not for the fees charged to end users.
Article X: The powers not delegated... by the Constitution...are reserved...to the people
Twice a year up in Princeton, Minnesota they have a machine gun shoot (www.tankrides.com). Now, regardless of what your opinion of guns are - pulling off 100 rounds from an M-60, AK-47 or an M-16, I tell you, nothing compares.
.50 cal through it.
I stockpile old computer equipment to take up to the shoot so I can put a few rounds of
There's nothing like pulling the trigger on a Barrett 50 cal sniper rifle and watching that old server that gave you years of grief explode.
It's beautiful.
Good security is based upon reality and common sense. Common sense is a function of having common knowledge.
Want to get rid of something for free?
I kid you not this ALWAYS WORKS.
Put it outside on a table with a hefty pricetag overnight, like a yard sale you didn't clean up.
Every single thing I've put out on the front lawn like that, including a carrion mini-fridge, groaning for burial, has been stolen!
slashdot: where everyone yells sarcastic metaphors to themselves to understand the issue
I actually don't even have to put a price tag on it or wait until dark. I just haul it into the front yard or near the curb and it's gone within 2 hours. I'm amazed at the crap I've gotten rid of that way. The funny thing is that the people who take it are *always* grinning ear to ear, like they just won the freaking lottery. I figure if I can make someone's day and get rid of it, it's a 2 way win.
The Glass is Too Big: My Take on Things
Hehehe.....and if they ever throw out a big SPOOL....now that's just great coffee/dining room table material. Goes perfect with the orange velour couch you find....
College room decorating at its best. A spool...obnoxious couch...and walls decorated in 'early American rock poster'.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
A warning for those who will be getting rid of old computers: make sure the hard drive is wiped clean (and I don't mean with format). I would recommend using software similar to Autoclave. Every once in a while we get stories posted here about people picking up HDs from eBay and finding all sorts of goodies still on them... Don't be one of those people.
Filthy set of free-weights and a rusty bench were stolen the same night I put the "$50 OBO" sign next to it. It sat there for almost a WEEK before I had that idea...
Come and see the violence inherent in the system!
A word to the wise, DO NOT use any old saw dust/chips as mulch. In fact almost all will cause damage to trees and buildings. "Why" ,you ask? "Wood chips are wood chips, right?" Wrong! The vast majority of wood chips attract termites, among other things. Mulching the flower beds around your home with maple or pine chips is like lathering your ass in honey and jumping into the grizzly bear pit at your local zoo. Not a good thing to do. Using the wrong wood chips around trees will also lead to termite infestation in your living tree. Sawdust can cause nitrogen depletion in the soil as well as fungal contamination in some plant. That's not a good thing either. You want to use very specific types of wood chips. You should use Cedar, Cypress, Eucalyptus wood chips as these will deter most bugs. Also note that bark chunks are not the same as wood chips. They have different bug deterring properties, not to mention visual appearance and most importantly price. A quick Google search will give you lots of information including this Lowes page. I was a landscaper in a former life.
You know, people will take these things even when you're honest with them.
My parents moved a few years ago from a 3000 sq.ft. house into an 800 sq. ft. condominium. Needless to say, not all their belongings would make the move with them.
My mother sold the best, yard-saled what she could, and then started making a habit of putting things out on the lawn every Tuesday afternoon with a big sign marked "FREE!". By evening, the lawn was empty, except for the sign -- and sometimes that was taken too.
After three months of her Tuesday give-aways, my mother had ridden herself of all the things she wasn't going to take with her. So, the Tuesday before the movers were scheduled to arrive, there came a knock on the door at 3:00 p.m. A shy, sheepish man with a wrinkled, stained shirt asked her if anything was available that day. My mother said no, wished him a good day, and closed the door.
She was surprized that he had the nerve to ask. She was ever more surprized when people came knocking all that afternoon and evening.