What's the Best Way to Recycle Old Tech in the US?

Tim Danhamn writes "SmartPlanet.com, a green-focused Web site, has put up an article about the best way to recycle your old tech, including local recycling centers and reusing old technology in other ways. I'm about to upgrade to a new PC and I have a lot of old radios, MP3 players and other electronic goods lying around the house. The article though is mostly about solutions in the UK, so I want to know - what is the best way to recycle old tech in the US?"

Comments

I know, I know!

[east coast]

what is the best way to recycle old tech in the US?

EBay.

Seriously, what better way to not trash something by getting what life (or parts) are left in it?

People get some good money for hardly working/not working tech on EBay just for parts alone. And hell, you may have no use for that old P350 but someone else on there just might. Why not let them have it for a few bucks+shipping?

Re:I know, I know!

[LordSnooty]

Good idea, but is it cost-effective if you only have a few items to sell? Can I be certain that I won't end up paying listing fees and failing to get rid of the equipment? Not to mention the hassle arranging shipping for bulky items. No doubt a million people will post this but a good solution which gets the equipment to people in the local area is Freecycle.

Re:I know, I know!

[keithjr]

If Ebay isn't cost effective for you, then you can always try Craigslist, if a subnet exists for your area. It's free to post ads, and you get the benefit of dealing locally. I've sold or given away hardware this way before to ensure it doesn't wind up in a landfill. Your contact info is anonymous (until you reply to responses). It's good to be able to make the exchange face-to-face rather than over email only. Of course, the usual "Don't be Stupid" rules apply to scams and jerks, etc. I highly recommend it.

Re:I know, I know!

[vux984]

Actually, they are right smack dab in the sweet spot for classic PC gaming, which are notoriously difficult to get running under windows or in emulation programs because they heavily direct access to video hardware, dos interupts, and required as much of that 640kb main memory as you could possibly give it [I recall having autoexec/config setups that dropped support for the CDrom, and used an 8kb mouse driver to run a particular game that actually came on CD. I had to do a full install of the game from CD, and then run the game without CD support in order to have enough RAM. These games were also pretty cpu clock sensitive.

I keep series of early PCs around for precisely this reason. Getting games like XCOM, Masters of Orion II, Might and Magic IV, Star Control II, Echelon, Privateer I/II, Wing Commander I/II/III, etc, etc can excruciatingly hard to get going without sound issues, with the proper framerate, with multiplayer (null modem) support etc...

I can be almost impossible unless running on real hardware from the era.

A P166 would make a good platform for late dos era games, and early win95 games.

Send it to China ... It'll come back...

[nebaz]

Scarily enough, even "recyclers" may not be doing the right thing here. I've enclosed an interesting link from the NPR series "Consumed" which talks about how
the US sends vast electronic garbage to China, and how some of the materials may be finding their way back here, in a not-so good way.

link

Re:Send it to China ... It'll come back...

[snowblind]

I was in Tokyo this summer and met a woman from Hong Kong who was giving a presentation at the university on how polluted areas of China are getting because of all the computer trash. The United States and Japan are the two worst offenders of this.

China's idea of "recycling" is having lower income people burn the old parts in open drums to reclaim the metals. This process dumps tons of burned plastic residue, PCB's and metals such as mercury all over the local landscape. There are areas of China that are becoming almost inhabitable. Birth defects are increasing. The study she did went so far as to measure the significant increase in these chemicals in breast milk.

For most of these chemicals they were tracking, the only places in the world that higher concentrations in the environment were in areas of Taiwan where a lot of this is manufactured.

From a financial perspective US companies that are moving manufacturing to China are not really saving any money on the manufacturing costs. (My wife worked in the finance department for a major power tool manufacturer and others have shared similar stories) Where they are saving money is in not having to provide all the controls and filters that the EPA is requiring at their facilities. The Chinese government has been willing to sell the future health of the country in the name of economic progress. And American companies are all too willing to oblige.

"Freecycle"

[flaming error]

One great way is just to give it away to anyone who wants it. Try this link to Freecycle, where there's a list of groups for areas within the US and around the world.

Re:"Freecycle"

[Anonymous Coward]

Freecycle is unbelievable.

Every time we have listed something, I said to myself "there is no way anyone wants that crap." And every time we immediately get multiple takers.

We listed the plants in a flowerbed we were going to pave over and within a couple of days someone came to our house, dug them out and carted them off.

Freegeek!

[Anonymous Coward]

Freegeek, in Portland, Oregon, is the best recycling option around. They recycle old monitors and equipment in an environmentally safe way. They use functional equipment to train people to work on hardware and install open source operating systems. Volunteers earn a refurbished system after volunteering 24 hours of time.

What I do

[Lxy]

I have a process for getting rid of old crap. The nice thing is I usually break even (or so).

Step 1: Find a local hamfest. Hamfests are held all around the country. Keep an eye out for the bigger ones. There's one in my town once a year, and it's one of the bigger ones around. I nab a table for $10, load it up with old crap, and try to sell it cheap. Minus the cost of the table and gas, I usually make a hundred here. Don't get excited yet. You'll need that money.

Step 2: Find a local recycling program. It just so happens that the county I live in has a recycling facility, and since their focus is not making money as much as it is proper disposal, they're the cheaper option. What I don't sell at hamfest gets taken there. Usually I ring up a good size bill, so financed by option 1 is a good thing.

Step 3: Find food. With the $20 or so left over after all expenses are paid, go eat. Now you just emptied the basement, did so responsibly, and got pizza out of the deal.

Targets

[kaoshin]

Many old technological devices can be recycled into targets for practicing small arms fire.

Re:Damn

[veganboyjosh]

Somewhat on topic...

Some friends of mine worked in a retail store, and had an old dot matrix printer that still worked, but they were done with. They put it out by the dumpster with a "free" sign on it. It sat by the dumpster for weeks, until one of them went out and put a "$10, inquire inside" sign on it, and it walked off within the hour.

Don't "just donate it to a school"

[CleverDan]

Whatever you do, don't just donate it to a school or non-profit charity, like we hear so often. Our need for a Pentium 2 or older P3, or an old G3 or G4 Mac isn't as great as you may think it is.

Yes, there are some places where any bit of hardware would be welcome, but the greater majority of NPOs need decent (read 2-4 year old) PCs, not the dinosaur in the basement. We need to access many of those blasted Flash-based sites, and old hardware just won't cut it like it anymore.

If possible, donate to a third-party refurbisher like this. Read through this for ideas on what NPOs really need. If you do want to donate an old beast that "runs Linux just fine", I encourage you to donate your time to teach and keep the machine up, too. It's hard to break the MS Charity Licensing habit, but it can be done with your help.

Please do the responsible thing, and don't donate your old tech to avoid paying to have it recycled. We barely have money to buy new parts and equipment, we don't have enough to pay for recycling the old stuff so you don't have to.

IDWAANPO: I do work at a non-profit.

Re:Damn

[Critical Facilities]

OK, admittedly off topic, but in a very similar vein and for your amusement:

Years ago, I was doing some HVAC work at an apartment community. This complex was made up of many buildings with several townhomes in each, all side by side. The electric meters for each townhome were grouped together on the back porch of one of the townhomes in each building. The particular condensing unit we were working on happened to be on the back porch where all the power meters were. While we were fixing it, the lady who lived in the house came out and asked us:

"Is there any way to make that meter run slower? My "light bill" is too high."

At this point, the other guy working with me (a real wise ass from NY) doesn't even skip a beat and says very matter of factly:

"Oh yeah, just put a brick on top of the meter"

Now it's all I can do to keep from laughing in her face at this point, but somehow I manage. She seems satisfied and goes back inside.

About a week later, I go back to the same unit to check it out and make sure it's still working fine and EVERY SINGLE METER had a brick on top of it. I bet I laughed for an hour.

Re:And we all know that heavy metals come from?

[ozmanjusri]

Yep, chrome, lead, etc definitely DO NOT from the environment

I know you're trolling, but for anyone reading this and wondering;
The metals mentioned don't exist in nature*. Galena, Chromite, Cassiterite etc are ores which do exist in the environment and from which chrome, lead and tin etc are produced. They're relatively safe because they're locked in host rock and largely insoluble in water.

* Except crystalline lead in very rare circumstances.