Best way to dispose of an old computer carcass?

[preslove]

Old dell with a blown power supply. Hard drives and optical drive salvaged, now it's just a case with an old motherboard and memory. I know throwing it in the dumpster is bad (though there are dumpster divers who come by regularly...), so what the hell do I do with it.

 

[IronWing]

Send it to Ghana. They turn them into water filters.

 

[Fern]

Old dell with a blown power supply. Hard drives and optical drive salvaged, now it's just a case with an old motherboard and memory. I know throwing it in the dumpster is bad (though there are dumpster divers who come by regularly...), so what the hell do I do with it.

Check your county's website. many have info on how/where to dispose of old computers etc.

Fern

 

[Via]

Our town has free electronics recycling. Maybe check and see if yours does?

Funny story: The last time I was there to dispose of a blown monitor I looked in one of the bins and there were a bunch of old laptops in it. They all looked like the same make and model and had some stickers on them, so I assume they were from one of the businesses in town.

A sign in front of the hut that houses the bins says that once you place anything in the bin it becomes city property and it's illegal to take anything out, but I was too chicken to grab a few armfuls to refurbish and sell on ebay.

 

[Rumpltzer]

I'm in the Los Angeles area. There's a household hazmat collection program that moves around the county every weekend (or two weeks). They come into my area on about a 3 months cycle to take old paint, auto fluids, electronics, sharps containers, etc.

You drive up, open the trunk, and drive away. There's an electronics recycling thing somewhere in LA. They disassemble and recover what they can.

http://www.lacsd.org/solidwaste/swfacilities/recyclecontact/hhw_e_waste/default.asp



That, or throw it in the ocean...

 

[spaceman]

hide it in with trash

 

[CZroe]

If you donate it to Goodwill they will remove the memory and smash it with a hammer because they were sued after criminals recovered and abused sensitive data from the HDDs of donated computers. Yes: Memory is not storage, but they destroy both because they aren't very smart.

Unfortunately, those are typically the only parts I want from donated computers. The waste makes me so sad.

 

[BUTCH1]

Heck, around here just set it out by the curb day before trash pickup, someone will grab it just for the steel weight, I set an old washer out one time, it was gone in 15 minutes..

 

[OVerLoRDI]

Heck, around here just set it out by the curb day before trash pickup, someone will grab it just for the steel weight, I set an old washer out one time, it was gone in 15 minutes..

Same here. I put an old and broken mac g4 on the curb and it was gone in 15 minutes. Granted I live in sf.

 

[tcG]

OP obviously knows nothing because those "old blown power supplies" contain up to 14 grams of titanium, and can be worth up to $500.

 

[CZroe]

OP obviously knows nothing because those "old blown power supplies" contain up to 14 grams of titanium, and can be worth up to $500.

Then what are they making them out of today for them to be so cheap?

 

[tcG]

PSUs today contain even more titanium. The reason they are so cheap is because the government subsidizes the cost. If you look on any power supply you will see a sticker on it that says "CONTAINS 14 GRAMS OF PURE, AWESOME TITANIUM - TAMPERING PROHIBITED".

 

[Red Squirrel]

PSUs today contain even more titanium. The reason they are so cheap is because the government subsidizes the cost. If you look on any power supply you will see a sticker on it that says "CONTAINS 14 GRAMS OF PURE, AWESOME TITANIUM - TAMPERING PROHIBITED".

Smoke detectors are even better, they have a similar warning, but it's uranium! With 5 smoke detectors you can build a decent size reactor to power your house for 10 years. Something the government does not want you to know.

They label it as americium, but it's really uranium from America. hence, americium. :biggrin:


As for disposing of old PCs check if your town has a recycling place, that takes cars and such. You might be able to bring it there.

There's a recycling place in town that takes stuff like this from cars to car batteries, and everything in between. I do wonder what they do with it though.

 

[phucheneh]

hide it in with trash

Dude, you're supposed to recycle it.







...hide it in the recycle bin.

 

[CZroe]

PSUs today contain even more titanium. The reason they are so cheap is because the government subsidizes the cost. If you look on any power supply you will see a sticker on it that says "CONTAINS 14 GRAMS OF PURE, AWESOME TITANIUM - TAMPERING PROHIBITED".

Damn! Cat must be out of the bag because the shelves at Best Buy are cleaned out.

 

[Howard]

Damn! Cat must be out of the bag because the shelves at Best Buy are cleaned out.

He got you good, bro.

 

[KlokWyze]

Smoke detectors are even better, they have a similar warning, but it's uranium! With 5 smoke detectors you can build a decent size reactor to power your house for 10 years. Something the government does not want you to know.

They label it as americium, but it's really uranium from America. hence, americium. :biggrin:

:biggrin:

I have a bin with about 6 old motherboards, RAM, CPUs, random bs, etc. sitting in my basement. I have some really strange specially produces PCB boards that weigh like 3 lbs a piece. Was from my GF's company that designs/produces lasers for mostly gov projects. There's got to be something in there worth some dough.

I used to to work for a computer re-cycler actually. I'll likely just take the bin to one of the companies we used to sell scrap too and see what I can wheel and deal out of them. That's always fun.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Nuke it from orbit.

It's the only way to be sure.

 

[KeithP]

Best Buy will take it for recycling.

-KeithP

 

[Mixolydian]

Dude, you're supposed to recycle it.







...hide it in the recycle bin.

Fuck that shit.

Put it in the trash.

 

[dabuddha]

 

[Wyndru]

Send it to Ghana. They turn them into water filters.

Best Buy will take it for recycling.

-KeithP

I think office max and staples will too, or at least they used to. I think one of them even gives you coupons or store credit for bringing old computer parts in.

 

[ComputerWizKid]

Was the MB killed by the dead power supply? and what was the dell model number?

 

[BUTCH1]

OP obviously knows nothing because those "old blown power supplies" contain up to 14 grams of titanium, and can be worth up to $500.

Awesome!, I've got about 7 old blown PS's in my garage, where can I get my $3,500?, was looking for a used bike anyway that would come in handy!.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

give it to me