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What Should I Do With My Tech Junk?
Thomas Matysik writes "I'm attempting to de-clutter my house and I've hit a rough patch: the computer room. I've got a bunch of wires, hardware and software that (I think) were useful at one point in time, but these days it doesn't do much more than take up space. Selling it seems like it'd be a huge hassle and it seems really wasteful for me to just pitch all of this stuff in the dumpster. I've considered giving it away to Goodwill, but I'm afraid that's not the right sort of outlet for this stuff. My question: what should I do with all of my tech junk?"
I mean it, simply bring it to a recycling centre. Older computer junk often has more gold content than newer stuff and they sell it off to companies that can extract it. The older the junk, the better.
As for goodwill, don't bother with anything below P-III class machines or higher. Even that's starting to be stuff they don't take anymore.
I think one of his points was that selling it, either in real life or online, would be too much of a hassle.
Have you considered recycling it?
Similar programs exist elsewhere in the civilized world. STFW and you'll probably find somewhere nearby that will be happy to take your junk off of your hands.
What they will do with it is anybody's guess, but at least it won't be sitting around your house any more.
That's how I've gotten rid of most of my accumulated junk.
Rgds
Damon
http://m.earth.org.uk/
Freecycle it.
I've come to really appreciate the power of Freecycle.
You give stuff away, so it's kinda like taking it to the charity shop, except that (a) the person who gets it is usually someone who really wants it, and (b) they come and pick it up, so you don't even have to take it anywhere.
And if you post it on freecycle and no-one is interested, then you can do what you were planning anyway and take it to the charities.
So consider freecycle for this. And if you're doing a mass clear-out as you said in your post, I'd suggest considering it for all the other stuff you're getting rid of.
I mean it, simply bring it to a recycling centre. Older computer junk often has more gold content than newer stuff and they sell it off to companies that can extract it. The older the junk, the better. As for goodwill, don't bother with anything below P-III class machines or higher. Even that's starting to be stuff they don't take anymore.
I agree with one exception: CRTs. I replaced two home CRTs with two nice LCD screens and wasn't sure what to do with them. Assuming no one would want them, I looked up recycling them which turned out to be pretty expensive.
Since they both worked, I took them down to the thrift store near my house and asked them if they'd take them. They said as long as they worked they would sell for $20 or so.
www.1800gotjunk.com
I'm not affiliated with them, never used them, but according to wikipedia, they are a good outfit, and donate/recycle stuff, including electronics.
In the Baltimore area, there's the Greater Baltimore Hamboree and ComputerFest every spring. My uncle, an electrical engineer, took me once when I was in high school, and I've been back several times since.
It's a blast! Make sure you browse the outdoor tables, too. This place really exemplifies the adage "One person's trash is another person's treasure."
"Anyone who [rips a CD] is probably engaging in copyright infringement." - David O. Carson
http://www.officedepot.com/promo.do?file=/promo/pages/0928_recycling.jsp
For a "nominal fee" you can drop it off there to be recycled.
Prof. Farnsworth - "Oh a lesson in not changing history from Mr I'm-My-Own-Grandpa!"
Short answer is...at some point, you really do have to say fuck it, and throw it in the trash.
Once I've accepted that, my home suddenly isn't cluttered, has more space and room for me to actually use the stuff I do have that is useful!!
At some point, it IS worth it to throw it all to the curb, and let the garbagemen take it away.
At the very least, put the stuff you think might be useful outtside or on top of the cans. Down here in New Orleans...often that stuff will disappear overnight. I've left old monitors and computers and gear out overnight for the trash, and very rarely do I ever see it in the morning still on the pile. If the stuff isn't good enough for the dumpster divers, then off it goes to 'trash land'.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
For a lot of old computers there is somewhat of a cult following, so the obvious answer is to take the old computer and bundle it with the software and perhaps a few cables and sell it on Ebay or Craigslist. You may not think your C64 is worth anything, but there is someone who will pay $25 for one in good working order. You think your Apple ][ is nothing more than a paperweight yet someone else thinks it is worth $15. You say it would be too hard, but, you need to realize that there are a lot of people who collect and/or use old tech. Not to mention that if you strip out all the insides, having an Apple ][ as a case would be cool for a whitebox computer....
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
I saw something about this place on the Planet Green tv channel. The thing that I had saw on tv was how they recycle old cd's and make them into cd cases, but they take all sorts of unwanted electronics stuff.
Here is the site
http://www.greendisk.com/
I think that it is a great idea when it comes to Linux adoption. For example, you take the old Pentium II you have and install DSL on it, (because the old Windows that was on it is most likely unusable anyways) and the kid learns Linux. Knowing Linux, he saves money on technology throughout his life and gets a good job as a sysadmin.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
I'm not affiliated with them either, but I HAVE used them.
They're pretty good if you have a lot of stuff. In our case we did, so they sent a truck and two guys over. You make an appointment for a certain day at a certain time, for a certain duration. They were pretty punctual.
Basically the guy (or guys) follow you around, you point at something, they put it in the truck. As long as it's something that can be reasonably picked up and moved they'll take it. They you pay based on how full the truck is, and they drive off. Not a bad deal if you have volume to deal with.
Here's what I do. Put your stuff on the curb the day after the garbage truck shows up so it will sit there for the next six days. Put a note on it.
Air Conditioner: Free. Works but it's a bit noisy, but yours if you want it.
Lawn Mower: Free. A bit smoky, has a loose rear wheel. Yours if you want it.
Those are two I've done. Both went somewhere before the next garbage day. Just stick a note on it and say it's free, and what might be wrong with it. I'd try something like this:
Old computer stuff: Free. Outdated, but worked the last time I used it. Yours if you want it.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
http://www.staples.com/sbd/content/about/soul/recycling.html
Staples offers in-store recycling for tech trash. There's a ten dollar charge for bigger stuff like monitors, printers, and PC's, but smaller stuff like keyboards, mice, and speakers are free. You'd be surprised at what getting rid of just the old keyboards and speakers did for my office. They also take only cell phones, pagers, cell phone batteries, etc. I've dropped off a few phones, sans SIM card of course.
Staples also has an ink and toner recycling program. It's gotten to be more of a pain in the ass lately, but it's still worthwhile. If you bring in an original HP, Dell, or Lexmark ink or toner cartridge, you get a $3.00 credit on you staples rewards card. Once you get at least $10.00 worth of rewards, you get a check in the mail.
You can only drop them off three at a time, but last month I able to turn our collection of used toner into $30+ dollar rewards check that I used on some supplies for non-profit I volunteer for.
There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell 'em.
They have many links to local and national outlets to recycle computers and electronics, and many of them are free or low cost:
http://www.epa.gov/e-cycling/donate.htm
You can also check out Freecycle in many major cities.
There are also Freecycle groups in some not-so-major cities, too. I live in a town of about 45,000, and we have one. You're a little less likely to find a taker for obscure stuff than in a bigger city, but it's worth a shot.
Oh please, I was a sysadmin for a short stint and I only had to kill someone and lime the body once. It's not like I had to chop up his family or something for calling me asking me to 'find the program in the file they lost'.
"Quote me as saying I was mis-quoted." -Groucho Marx
If you're in the US and you have small electronics (like obsolete video cards), you can get prepaid recycling envelopes at the post office. See here: http://www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/2008/pr08_028.htm Computer cables are a big question mark for me. Unlike building wire, they don't have enough copper to be particularly valuable. Every new LCD monitor seems to come with a VGA and a DVI cable, only one of which is typically used. That's a lot of cable to be instantly obsolete. Maybe I'll put all the VGA cables in a box and ship them back to Dell.
Around here, they also shit their signs all over the place. They're worse than political signs, because at least those get taken down at the end of the political season. The 1-800-G**-J*** signs stick around, and they seem to replace them if someone takes them down.